#so I guess they've switched foods now...?

[applescabs]

my dog is eating catfood and my cat is eating dogfood.

[sauriansolutions]

Here's a little snippet thing to get myself started at having a blog with, like, content.

I was inspired by the absolute silliness that is the class of TWST item called "Secret Snacks." I just adore the concept that you can boost your friendship with game characters by, apparently, stealthily feeding them illegal snacks during class?

All my (excessive number of) Jade cards have full vignettes *cries* but I just want to keep feeding him forever... help...

"Secret Snacks"

You are sitting next to J.ade in class before lunch. You can hear his stomach growling and whining every few minutes. 

You occasionally catch him frowning down at himself after a particularly egregious rumble, like he's trying to scold his belly into silence. You can't help but let out a quiet giggle at his stern expression, and Jade, realizing he's been perceived, shoots you a sheepish grin.

"So sorry," he mouths, sotto voce.

You reassure him that it's alright. 

Towards the end of class, you notice Jade reaching down to fold one arm around his middle. His stomach's complaints have gotten quieter, but they've also become more frequent, to the point that the gurgles have become a near-constant background noise. 

As you watch, Jade looks up to check the clock for the umpteenth time, then sighs quietly and slumps forward a bit in his chair, lips pressed tightly together in a disappointed pout. You look up, too, and note that here's still about fifteen minutes before lunchtime.

Poor Jade. Since agreeing to switch seats with Leona (who wanted a spot behind the tall student so the professor couldn't see him as well), you've noticed that Jade gets distractingly hungry like this every day, around the same time. 

Jade is usually perfectly attentive and studious during class. But you've heard he also has, what he terms, "poor fuel efficiency. So, you guess that this is around the time his energy reserves from breakfast are nearly depleted. 

His empty, grumbling stomach clearly makes the mer student unhappy and fidgety, shifting in his seat, shuffling papers aimlessly, or doodling in the margins of his notebook. 

You've seen Jade's actual sketchbook, so you know the eel is quite artistically talented. But, humorously enough, as lunchtime draws near, Jade's sketches seem to inevitably devolve from nearly-photorealistic drawings of mushrooms, trees, and plants, to simplistic and almost cartoony renderings of his favorite foods. 

Octopus dishes, you couldn't help but notice, feature prominently. 

You've even caught Jade gnawing on the decorative filigree around the edges of his magestone pen, once or twice. Thankfully, the pens are apparently spelled to be highly durable and shatter-proof. Still, the grinding sound of Jade's razorblade teeth on stone or metal makes you wince every time you hear it. 

Jade, now nearly drooling, is putting the finishing touches on a drawing of what appears to be a steaming plate of grilled octopus. 

... Not for the first time, you find yourself wishing you had something to feed Jade. 

Students technically aren't allowed to bring food into the classroom, but you've seen your fellow classmates covertly munching on candies, meal bars, and the like enough times during class, that you feel like sneaking in a snack or two couldn't be *that* big of a deal. 

Maybe tomorrow, you think, you'll slip Jade one of those packets of barbecue-flavored dried squid that are on sale right now at the Mystery Shop. 

Smiling, you jot down a quick reminder to yourself in your planner. Next to it, you draw a little cartoon eel. You give it a big, toothy smile, and add lots of cute little sparkles in its eyes. 

Satisfied with your work, you close your planner and wait for the bell to ring. 

Classes have been getting increasingly more difficult, as midterms are approaching. 

But now, you think, you have at least one reason to look forward to tomorrow's lesson.

[guppybubbles]

You wanted prompts so let me hit you with some fake fic titles! No pressure to do them all and you can take as long as you like🥰 will send em separately too!

A Glass half Full

A GLASS HALF FULL

Borrower Wilbur and Borrower Techno are realists. When reality gets too negative, Techno is always there to be Wilbur's optimist.

Word Count: 1,714 words

CONTENT WARNING!!! : mentions of blood, decapitation, and a rat. these are only mentioned once, but a warning is good.

( A/N: i wrote these in between my study sessions for the exams,,,,,,,,, also yayy my first fic in like.. seven years i think? have mercy on me idk what i'm doing. ALSO THIS IS MOSTLY JUST TECHNO AND WILBUR BONDING I JUST LOVE THEM OKAY. also also ty for the fic title beckyu!! )

Wilbur paced back and forth, arms crossed and in deep thought. "How many days do you think our food can last?" 

"About two days— three, if we can portion it out correctly." Techno replied, sitting on their makeshift couch as he opened their very own medical kit, filled with cut up bandages, drops of alcohol, a little roll of tape and other things they've borrowed over the years. 

"And… your arm?" 

Techno unwrapped the bandages and winced at the horrible sight, dried blood and bite marks after they encountered an abnormally big rat yesterday. He handled it better than he expected, but before the injured rat scurried away, it attempted to bite his head head off, which resulted with him blocking with his arm. “S’fine. Nothing too bad.”

Wilbur sighed, and Techno could imagine the exasperated eye-roll behind him. “It really isn’t that bad.”

“Yeah. Nothing too bad my arse.” His twin circled around the couch and took a cotton ball, pouring alcohol and taking hold of his arm. His eyebrows furrowed in a way that meant he was thinking of so many things, his eyes were on Techno’s arm but his mind was elsewhere. Despite being distracted, he was careful. Of course, the alcohol gently cleaning his fresh wounds still hurt and he would wince every time it stung a little too much, but Wilbur knew when to pause and give him a break before continuing. 

Wilbur took a new bandage roll and wrapped it around Techno’s arm. “What’s wrong?”

“What?” Wilbur looked at him, a confused look on his face.

“You’re thinking about something. What are you thinking about?” 

“Oh.” Wilbur avoided his gaze again, biting off the tape and securing his wounds in his newly bandaged arm. “It’s— We just need more food. I’ll go borrow some right now, and don’t come with me, I swear to Prime, you’re injured.”

──────⊹⊱✫⊰⊹──────

Techno still ended up following him.

Wilbur had thought he convinced him to stay behind and rest, he even stayed for TWENTY more minutes trying to get Techno to lay down and not get up. He listed potential things he could do while waiting for him to get back, it wasn’t a very long list, and it only lessened because Techno was injured and what they mostly did was build new furniture or upgrade their equipment. For extra measure, Wilbur took Techno’s borrowing equipment to make sure he doesn’t have anything to use to venture out, forcing his twin into house arrest. It was with good intentions, Wilbur thought, He was literally injured.

“You think I could just let you leave to go borrow so early in the morning?” Techno argued, holding Wilbur’s borrowing equipment. After that, there was nothing else Wilbur could do to convince Techno to go back, because Techno was stupidly stubborn, and held his hand to drag him to the pantry.

His stubbornness irritated Wilbur so much, because it was exactly like him. While having incredibly different interests, they still acted the same, that’s what made them get along after spending their entire life in tandem. Together, they were raised for different jobs in their old colony. Together, they’d switch their looks just so they could avoid the chore they hate. Together, they grew up and left the colony. Everything they did, they did it together. Wilbur guessed simply getting food from the pantry wouldn’t be an exception from that.

They moved in silence, but not one of them needed instructions from the other for the reason that they were also moving in sync. As they gathered food, not a single sound was made, not even when they ruffled through plastic material did it make a noise. “There’s something still bothering you.” Techno noted, almost finished with packing his own bag of food. Not including the stash they had at home, the food bags they were holding could last them for a week or so. Wilbur stayed silent, tying up his pack and slinging it over his shoulder. “I think we got enou—” “Wil.”

Techno cut him off, already knowing his evasion tactics. Wilbur found their surroundings much more interesting than his twin. “If you wanna say something, we got to talk it out. Were you so distracted with your thoughts that you didn’t notice the pantry door isn’t locked? You didn’t even tell me to hide from the doors opening view or anything.” 

“What’s wrong?” Techno asked again. There was a slight shift in his tone, unnoticeable to anyone that wasn’t his twin. He was worried, and Wilbur felt bad that he was hiding his thoughts to his only companion for years. He still wanted to think about it some more, it’s the reason why he made the excuse of leaving so he could have just a little time for himself before speaking with Techno about it.

“I think it’s time we move out.” Wilbur finally looked at the pink-haired borrower for his reaction, only for Techno to make a gesture that told him to go on and elaborate. He took a seat on the floor before he spoke again.

“... The humans are in here too much. The kid’s got this.. Summer break so I don’t think he leaves for school until.. I don’t know how long! You know this, we can’t even go out at night most of the time because his schedule is unpredictable. I mean, one moment, he’s awake the whole day and night and the other he’s just sleeping for how long. Then the dad, his shifts are different too. He goes out early and we don’t know how long we have until he gets back, and even when he leaves, the kid’s still here too! We stay inside most of the time and we barely even have a chance to go and refill when our supply runs out. Not to mention, that fucking rat! Have you seen how huge that thing was?!”

He continued, “No matter how long we wait, one of them will always be wandering around. It’s not safe.”

They stood in silence for Prime knows how long. “But… Why now? You said you loved it here.” Techno asked, leaning against a box of cereals. “Even when they had Christmas break and stayed here almost every day for those long weeks, you never even thought about leaving.”

When Wilbur stayed silent, having that same expression of deep thought, it was Techno’s turn to continue talking. “I think this house is pretty great. Many hiding spots, escape routes, and they always buy a lot of stuff so they never notice when anything goes missing. Even though they stay up late, they’re always too focused on their work so we have enough time to do what we need to before they notice. It’s way better than going to a new home and having to relearn this all over again, right?”

“No. Maybe— I thought maybe I liked it here, but it’s just not safe.”

“It’s safer here than it is out there.” Techno sat next to Wilbur, awkwardly patting his shoulder in a way to show his affection. Wilbur would’ve laughed at his awkwardness, but only shrugged his hand away. “We’re borrowers, Tech. No where is safe for us.”

There was silence again. 

…

“Okay.”

“Hm?” Wilbur hummed, looking at his twin.

“If you think it’s best if we leave. Then, I trust you. We’ll leave.” Techno stood up from where he sat, and hung the bag of food on his shoulder once more. “Besides, I’m 100% sure that there are better houses than this. Maybe we could even land on a cool big house, a mansion.”

“I doubt that we can find a mansion here, but you know what, we never know.” Wilbur shrugs, following after Techno.

“I got to say though, I’ll miss this place. We were the first ones here before they moved in and they have the audacity to kick us out? Granted, we never did pay rent but first come, first serve.” Wilbur laughed at Techno, covering his mouth to muffle his laugh. His giggles were silent and quiet. Together, they began walking to their passageway back home.

“I’ll probably miss the humans too. They are kind of funny sometimes.” Wilbur only hummed. He’ll miss them too. But, they were the reason he thought of leaving in the first place. 

It was just one night. The kid was half-asleep, and Wilbur was in a tipsy state. He accidentally replied to the kid when they were just talking to themself, then it devolved into an hours long conversation until they both drifted asleep. With him hidden safely in the walls, and the kid sleeping on his bed— seemingly just speaking to his wall for an insane amount of time. Wilbur hated it.

He hated that he genuinely enjoyed his time speaking with him. He hated it that he was the one who broke the basic rules of borrowing. He hated being curious about that one drink the dad prevented the younger blond from drinking.

After that incident, Wilbur noticed the kid would occasionally look at the walls longer than normal and his heart would spike whenever he would be close to seeing him. Guilt only ate at him as the habit remained, sending shivers of anxiety through him whenever they would go borrow— he would turn around and expect to find those same blue eyes looking straight at him. Looking straight at Techno.

He can’t afford his own twin flame pay for the mistakes that he made. It’s why they have to leave.

“Let’s go. My arm is starting to ache again.”

“Yeah. That’s what you get for not listening to me.”

Behind him, Techno choked and coughed.

“Tech? What’s wrong, are you si—” Wilbur was interrupted when Techno stood in front of him, dropping his bag of food and instead holding a pin with his good arm. He stared at the pink-haired borrower, noticing the coughing continued, but not from him.

His gaze travelled to the entrance of the pantry. Coughing up a storm, the blond pounded on his chest, attempting to calm himself down. Wilbur noticed the glass of water that he was presumably drinking out of. A human caught them, not just a human, it was the kid.

… Fucking hell. 

[huffle-dork]

Swap into the CrystalVerse Chapter 25: Inverted

Co-written with @crystalninjaphoenix 

Read Swapboys | Read Inverted | Read The InvertedSwap Crossover |AO3 Link

Prologue | Switch | Stitched | PNPT | Septicheroes | Fantasy Masks | Horror | Inverted

Taglist: @brokentimewatch @di-diwata  

"Are you holding up?" Anti asks. They've officially reached Mirygale by now, though they're just on the edge of the surrounding suburbs and not into the proper urban area. "Need anything?" Anti looks Alt up and down, assessing his condition after so much glitching.

Alt has slumped against the nearest building he can, blinking colored spots out of his eyes. He giggles a bit breathlessly as his vision dips and sways. “ha ha… m’fineee~! J’st dizzy…!”

"...that's not fine," Anti states. "I don't know if your glitching has changed in the past eleven months, but you're not supposed to be dizzy after it." He shakes his head. "Okay. We're here. We've arrived in the city. I can start looking at the CCTV cameras for signs of your Chase. While I do that, we can sit down and take a break." He glances around. "I'm pretty sure this is a safe area. And if it's not, we can handle it."

“S’fine-“ Alt mumbles, not wanting to look too weak in front of Anti. However, when he tries to glitch to be back by Anti, his vision tunnels for a second and his knees buckle. His eyes roll for just a second as he attempts to catch himself back on the side of the building.

"Whoa!" Anti glitches forward and grabs Alt. He doesn't keep hold of him for long, just long enough to right him. Then he steps back. "Like I said, that's not fine." He glances around. "Look. Bus stop. Has a bench. We'll sit down there. I promised I'd explain things, anyway, this is just giving me an opportunity to."

Alt leans against Anti for the second he’s righted and then he nods slowly, shaking out the spots again. “M’kay-“ He slurs, trying to keep his eyes open. “Sorry-“ Ugh he wished he had Chase’s backpack- he always had some kind of snacks on him. He starts to stumble towards the bus stop.

Anti walks next to Alt for a little bit, then sighs and reaches out to help support him. The poor guy is clearly having trouble on his own. They reach the bus stop together and sit down.

Alt doesn’t protest to being helped- even though he normally would. He slumps against the bench and shakes out his head again.

"Right, you need energy, don't you?" Anti mutters. "Food. Um..." He thinks about it, then reaches to the side. His hand disappears into an invisible pocket for a second, then returns holding a handful of chocolate bars. "There. If you... need anything more specific, uh, tell me, I guess? I'm getting these from a petrol station store that won't notice snacks going missing so keep to stuff that'd be found in there."

Alt blinks up at Anti reaching- and then his eyes widen and shine with hungry excitement at the sight of the chocolate bars. He quickly starts to tear into them, hardly chewing but he nods to Anti. “These are great but- anything with protein can help- something that’ll keep me energized for a long time- maybe an energy drink?“ He stuffs another chocolate bar into his mouth as he mutters, “I was also just like- tortured in a lab for a day and all it gave me was water so I’m starving-“ He says casually, now properly distracted by actually being able to eat.

Anti nods along, sealing this to memory, and then stops. "Wait what the fuck?"

Alt blinks at him, pausing in his chewing. “…what?” His eyes then widen and he quickly looks away, “Uh f-forget about that for now! I can.. e-explain later… probably-“

"What fucking universes did you go to?! Gods." Anti shakes his head. "Okay, fine. You don't have to explain now. Protein and energy. Okay." He does the same thing, now pulling back a bag of beef jerky and an energy drink. "Here. Gods. Fucking hell."

“Too many…” Alt mutters as he takes the food from Anti and doesn’t look at him. “We’ve been… jumping for a while.” He cracks open the energy drink and takes a long swig.

Anti sighs. "Can't imagine... I know they're out there, but I can't go to other worlds on my own. The most I can manage is the Space In-Between. And my home of course, but that's a pocket dimension, not a universe, it's different. It must've been just one thing after another, huh?"

Alt nods, taking another bite of his chocolate bar. Though he laughs slightly. “that’s funny… you seem so powerful… I always thought you could go to other places.” He takes a drink. “to be fair we had help- a device we got from a place called IRIS.”

He fishes out of his pocket and shows it to Anti. “It was broken in the world we found it in… but all it needs is some of my magic and… then we can go anywhere… anywhere but Home though, it seems.” He laughs bitterly. “…it’s been like.., 5 days? A week? Honestly I’ve… lost track of time…” He grabs some of the jerky and eats some before pointing a finger at Anti. “Tell you what- catch me up on all the shit going on here… and I’ll tell you about what we’ve seen. Equal information exchange~!” He smirks.

Anti stiffens slightly at the mention of IRIS. But then he nods and moves on. "Yeah. I said I'd do that, didn't I?" He takes a deep breath. He doesn't need to, but it's steadying.

"After you guys left, Marvin started looking into other worlds. I don't think he found much, but hit led to him diving even deeper into his fucking... black magic studies. And I guess he decided he had enough of most of the others.

"He and Jameson teamed up against the rest of them. Jameson got Schneep on their side with that watch of his and... You saw Jackie's scars. Those were from Marvin. He... The two of them always hated each other. It's just that Marvin made the first move. The three of them got the jump on him and... captured him, I suppose. Moved their base from the house to this hotel area. Kept Jackie in the basement there for Marvin to fuck with for fun. He got out eventually, as you can see, but... the other two weren't so lucky.

"Jameson used his powers on Chase and Jack. Put them both deep under, deeper than he did with Schneep. Chase is providing them with money and victims by..." Anti laughs. "...by pretending to be Jack on his YouTube channel. But Jack is... He's... H-he's..." Another breath. "He's not dead, cause I'm still here. A-and I think that must've been on purpose. I think... Jameson wanted me to... I-I don't know. Realize I'm... not powerful? Jack is... You know about him, from the time we shared memories. He's... very important to me. And they turned him into a fucking doll." Anti curls up a little bit. "Just... a blank, empty shell. Something you can display. I-I don't know what they did but I can't... reach him. And then they moved him away. Somewhere with no cameras or anything, because I have no idea... where he is." Anti's voice broke. "Sam misses him, too, a lot. They don't... leave home much nowadays. They rarely did, but even less now." Another breath. "But... I'm going to find him. I'm going to fix him."

Alt listens closely, politely staying quiet. But, it all hits him like a truck. He gapes at Anti, especially when his voice breaks. He never even thought Anti could cry- He swallow thickly and looks down, “…a hotel? …my friend- she mentioned once… that her friend got dragged into this world… and was hurt in a hotel. By your guys.” He shudders, remembering things Huffle had told him.

"Yeah... I think I know what you're talking about. I was there for that. Maybe I met your friend, there were a few people there."

“That’s… thats fucked up. Massively fucked up… I’m so sorry Anti…”

Anti is quiet for a moment. Then he nods. "Thanks," he whispers. He reaches up and adjusts his scarf, briefly showing the bloodstained bandages underneath. "I'm not going to give up. Ever. I can be very patient, especially against people who deserve it." Wrath flashes in his visible eye, darkening its sclera to black for a split second. "But... that hotel. If we can't find your brother outside, we need to check there."

Alt shudders more at this and grips at his arm. “…knowing our luck lately? ….I wouldn’t doubt that he’s there…” He swallows shakily and reaches to slow pick a bit more at his snacks.

“Yeah… How bad has your luck been?” Anti asks, looking at Alt. “It looks pretty bad. You mentioned… a lab? And… IRIS.”

Alt takes a shaky breath and laughs, “Right.” He grips the energy drink can in his hands as he starts. “It all started when Mag took me into a secret room under our own freaky organization’s headquarters- they’re called SCLERA but I think they’re like IRIS. Anyways- he took me and Chase managed to glitch with us- and he found… an archway. Just like the one in the museum that brought us here the first time. He figured out it just needed black magic and my glitches to work. So he.. corrupted me- made me activate it. Chase luckily managed to come with us…

“Then we ended up in- in a universe we hadn’t been to. But with versions of us we met before- oh yeah it’s… it’s the guys I tried to call you about… they have a freaky version of Chase called Distorter.” He shudders and digs his nails into the can.

“… long story short there- Distorter led all of us to an old Iris facility- where we found the device we’ve been using. The TRVLR. The only problem is- we cant tell which universe is which. They’re all just labeled by jumbled up numbers and letters. So we’ve been just… picking one and hoping it leads back home.

“Obviously- none of them have been home yet. The second one we went to… had some really messed up guys. Their chase had… strings in his skin- and their Anti. They were… they were literally two people stitched together by black magic.” He laughs a bit more, but it sounds scared. “…you mentioned Amp earlier… Something like Amp happened to me there too.. I.. I glitched- and I.. I merged with them.” Instinctual tears fall down his face as he chuckles hollowly. “It was… it was awful.”

Anti's eye widens. "What?" he breathes. "You... you got stuck with some... being made of black magic?" He pauses. "...Stitches. I know of him. That world is close to this one. Gods, Alt. I'm... I'm so sorry. If it was like Amp... gods." Their thoughts had merged together. The pain and hatred that Alt must have endured in that fusion...

Alt laughs, sounding a little unhinged. “That’s what he’s called? Ha… how fitting…” He grips at the can more, denting it and feeling the metal poke into his skin. “…I could feel them- Marvin and Jackie… they were tearing apart- they were… it was horrible. To see their- pain and hate combining to make… that world’s version of me.”

He blinks more tears out of his eyes and tries to hide his shaking. “Of course it didn’t end there… but Um… we did manage to find a kinda nice universe after that? They had um… kid versions of us. Met a sweet teenaged Jackie and… a little budding magician Marvin.” He smiles at the memory, touching the trans pin on his jacket. “The magic there was… strange though. They called it greenlight. But- we even managed to help out a younger Anti… I felt so bad for him… he just- didn’t understand. How humans worked but… I think he just wanted to play.”

"...wait a... greenlight?" Anti blinks. "I--huh. I wonder..." He shakes his head. "Nevermind. This isn't the time. Well, that sounded alright. Some risk, I'm assuming with Magnificent tagging along, but not as bad as Stitches' world. "

Alt shakes his head with a smile. “No it was… it was nice. I… I adored that Marvin kid.”

He then sighs and tries to remember what came next. “Then… oh! Chase loved the next one- it was full of supers. Like- all of us had superpowers. There was a league and Jackie was the main hero there- like Bro is ours. We had to save their chase and… oh yeah there was… a really freaky Anti there too. He… he knew about me and chase just from our phones but- he didn’t actually wanna hurt us. Said he just wanted to observe. He was a freaky bastard.”

“Oh but then! The next one was wild! We ended up in a like- fantasy world- I think they called it Glasuil- Mag got captured by their king who was… also freaky. He like- actually controlled Mag. But I~ kicked his ass~!” He grins, pointing to himself with his thumb before focusing back on his retelling.

“But… I think being away from tech messed with the TRVLR… so it must have clicked on the wrong universe because that’s… that’s where the.. freaky doctor thing found me. Called itself Notarzt…”

"You ended up in THAT fucking world?!" Anti shouts. What follows is a series of curses in Irish and Gaelic. "Gods, Alt! Holy shit. Again, never been there, but I definitely know of that one. No wonder you're so fucking hurt. Gods. Fuck." He shakes his head. "I'm glad you got out of there. I thought things were bad here, but it must seem like a picnic after that."

Alt flinches at Anti’s shout and grips at his bandaged arm, shaking slightly. He swallows thickly. “Yeah I-it really sucked… met another freaky Anti there too. … it took us a long time to realize that those… things were more versions of us…”

He then sighs and gestures at the space around them. “And now! We’re here~” He ends his recap by taking another bite of a chocolate bar with a loud crack.

Anti can probably see how exhausted Alt looks by his posture alone. “…but we keep going. That’s what Chase always says… we keep going.”

Anti nods. "We keep going," he repeats in a quiet voice, scanning the city skyline as if it holds the solution to all his problems.

"If it helps, Alt... I might be able to help you figure out which world is yours. I know a lot about universes... and about how IRIS would number things. Maybe I could identify what they called yours."

Alt looks back at Anti with wide eyes. “R-Really?” He then laughs quietly and looks relieved. “That… that would be amazing. I wanna go home so. bad.” He starts to finish up his snacks and ball up the trash, feeling his energy coming back. “…we just gotta find my brother first. Anddd also unfortunately Mag…”

"Right. Him." Alt can practically hear Anti's teeth grinding in anger. "I guess he needs to go back to your universe. To preserve your stories, or whatever the fuck They said."

“Unless you wanna take him- but I think you have enough problems,” Alt chuckles bitterly.

Anti forces himself to calm down--god he wants to kill Magnificent, even more after hearing he started Alt and Bro's journey of suffering. But he'll restrain himself.

"Well... I've been running a background process to check the camera footage, and either your brother is somewhere without cameras... or he's in the hotel. They put up wards to block external eyes so I'm blocked off from there. Not blocked off from going in, though."

Alt listens and then gets up, throwing away all the wrappers and stuff from his snacks then shaking himself out, body shuddering with glitches. His eyes glow with renewed power as he looks back at Anti. “well… guess we got a hotel to check into then-“

Anti laughs. “Yeah. I guess we do. Come on.” He stands up and glitches farther down the street, waiting on a corner for Alt to join.

Alt smirks and then glitches right after Anti.

——————

It’s completely dark in the room, which is really disconcerting. Marvin had dragged him down the stairs with complete confidence. And while Bro was still recovering from the pain that his magic was causing, he locked a pair of chains around each wrist, binding him to the wall. And after a slight pause, he locked one around his neck too. A collar with a very short leash.

Bro struggles against the chains and then chokes in surprise at the collar being put around his neck. “Uh… this seems kinda kinky-“ He mumbles.

Marvin pauses. “Oh, you’re a talker.” He doesn’t sound particularly happy about that. “Fine. I can work with that.” Another pause. “I have no interest in that stuff by the way.” The defensiveness in his voice would’ve been funny if it didn’t have that uncanny echo.

“Oh yeah of course not-“ Bro mutters. “That’s why you do it without a second thought-“

Bro can see Marvin’s eyes glowing in the darkness. He can hear him walking across the concrete floor of the room but he can’t see what he’s doing. “Hmmm…” Marvin hums. A bit of bright violet magic gathers in his hand and splatters to the ground, where it clusters together and forms the shape of a translucent glowing cat. The cat construct shakes itself and walks closer to Bro.

Bro looks down at the cat with confusion and then tries to push himself back. “Uhhhh n-nice kitty…?”

The cat walks closer. It tilts its head to the side, looking at him. Well it doesn’t have eyes, but it feels like it’s looking at him. Then it places one front paw on Bro’s leg. Followed by another. Alt has a cat so Bro is probably used to this behavior. He is not used to the burning feeling that pops up where the cat construct’s paws touch him.

Bro blinks at the cat and then yells out as it climbs onto him. He kicks out his legs to try to get it off.

The cat digs its claws in but a couple tries knocks it off. “Thaaaaat’s not very nice, Chase,” Marvin says. “I didn’t know you were ailurophobic. Don’t worry! It just wants to check you out.”

“That’s a big word!” Chase comments with rising panic. “But if it means what I think it means no! I’m not scared of cats! I’m wary of freaky ones that burn me though!”

The cat recovers and approaches Bro again. A normal cat would be cautious of someone who just kicked it away, but this is not a normal cat. It hops right onto Bro’s lap, the burning sensation coming with it as it sits and curls its tail around it.

Bro yells out as the cat sits on him and grits his teeth, trying to figure out how to get it off.

“Well you better get used to it,” Marvin says bluntly. “If you can’t handle this you’re not going to last very long.”

As Marvin talks, the cat gets up on its hind legs and presses its front paws against Bro’s chest. Its head moves closer to his face like it’s sniffing him, though it doesn’t have a nose. Then it lies down, resting its whole body across his chest. There’s a slight hissing sound coming from it. Not like how cats actually hiss. Like the sound of water hitting hot metal.

Bro squirms under the cat and bites back any yells or whimpers that want to escape him. He can’t let Marvin think he’s already winning- he’s stronger than this… this is nothing!

The cat stays there for maybe a minute, the burning just feeling worse the longer it goes on. Then it abruptly dissolves into violet magic, which drips down Bro's chest before fading away.

Bro gasps quietly as the cat leaves, taking in careful breaths to try to work through the pain.

"Interesting," Marvin says. There's the clink of glass, and then Marvin approaches Bro, crouching down next to him. "Did you know you have a very unique soul?" The light from Marvin's glowing eyes makes his grinning face into a ghoulish mask.

Bro flinches as Marvin crouches next to him and tries to move away. “Ha- well, my aunts did always tell me I was special~” He tries to joke.

"So sorry for you," Marvin says insincerely. Before Bro can wonder what that means, Marvin takes out a long needle--and pricks him with it. And 'prick' really is the right word. Despite the length of the needle it barely goes into Bro's skin before Marvin withdraws it. He puts the needle in a glass tube filled with some sort of clear liquid, then caps the tube, stands up, and walks away.

Bro yelps out in surprise and blinks at Marvin in confusion. “..the hell does that mean? Is that a comment about my soul or my aunts? are you being homophobic right now? Or ableist cuz that’s not what I meant by ‘special’!”

Chase can see Marvin's eyes rolling perfectly well because of their glow. "The fact that you think I would be either of those things when my only friend is Jameson is insulting," he says, mostly to himself.

“To be honest- don’t know much about the guy besides the fact that he hypnotized my brother and my friends- but good for him being gay I guess? Does that give him a ‘not-as-much-of-an-asshole-as-you-could-have-been award’?” Bro says dryly.

Marvin’s voice drops into a deeper mutter that Bro can barely hear with his super hearing. "This is what happens when I try to be sympathetic, why did I even try..." Then he turns back to him. "You know, I waaaas going to just leave you here while we wait for the taglock to settle, but I guessss you'd rather stay and chat some more."

Bro’s eyes furrow as he hears Marvin mutter. “I mean- I like talking but you clearly don’t. But, at least I can ask some questions. …why were you trying to be sympathetic? What’s a tag lock? The fuck are you planning to do to me?”

"Heh." Marvin grins. "I didn't mean it literally, but sure. Why not." He walks up to Bro and crouches down again. Nothing in his hands this time. "For the first one. IIII know what it's like to be called that. It's not pleasant. IIII thought we might have something in common. Guess I was wrong. And a taglock is the process one uses to extract a tiiiny portion of your soul power and distill it into essence. Don't worry. Your soul recharges most power over time, such a small amount won't make a difference. As for the last question... I think it's more fun if it's a surprise. Fun for me, of course."

Bro frowns and looks at Marvin with a mixed look. ….he didn’t really feel like he was seen too different until he got his powers. And even then- his powers were a good thing. It was hard to deal with at first but… he’s glad he has them. He did get made fun of for being ADHD but- that didn’t really bother him much. “Hm- I guess our definitions of ‘special’ are different. I don’t think I was ever at your level.” He spits darkly. But then he blinks and furrows his eyebrows together, “Soul power? The fuck is that??”

Marvin's expression darkens as Bro speaks. "Don't worry about it," he says. "Just know you'll get it back. You probably already have it back. Now." Suddenly, his hand shoots out and grabs Bro by the hair, slamming his head back against the wall. "I want to try something out."

Bro yells out as his vision flashes white for a second- his head hitting the wall with a loud thud. But, he bares his teeth at Marvin and he lets power shine in his eyes. "Whatcha gonna do? Burn me with more cats?"

Marvin grins. "That was just a probe. Not really an actual spell." He adjusts his grip, now holding Bro's head in both hands, forcing him to look him in the eyes. "Not like this." Marvin's eyes glow brighter.

Bro writhes and tries to push out of Marvin's grip, a mounting fear weighing down his chest. He doesn't like the look in Marvin's eyes so he closes his, trying to shrink away.

"Scared?" Marvin adjusts his grip, prying Bro's eyelids open again with his thumbs. "You should be."

Bro's vision starts to swim. Fuzzy shapes start to form, repeating fractals, looping like a kaleidoscope, like seeing the angles of a room degrade and then rebuild and then degrade again. He couldn't put a color to the shapes if he wanted to, nor a type, but they're undeniably there. His head starts to hurt.

Bro swallows shakily as his vision swims with confusing patterns. He blinks rapidly, trying to make sense of it. "W-What are you doing?"

Marvin lets go of Bro's head. It's too late now. The spell is already in motion, even if he closes his eyes he'll see the patterns.

"Have you ever had a geometric nightmare?" Marvin asks. "That's not what they're called officially, but you'd know if you had one. This is it. But worse."

The patterns are repeating, growing. They're getting closer--no, Bro is getting closer, he's falling, falling, falling but he can't get his body to respond in time to fly. The shapes fracture, a swirl of swooping hills and broken glass. The rest of the room is wavering. To an outside observer, it looks like Bro's eyes are filled with concentric purple circles. To him, he feels sick. His ears are ringing. His head is aching, a sharp pain like the world's worst migraine.

Bro slumps against the wall, his eyes wide as he tries to blink past the patterns. He can't tell what's up and what's down. He tries to push himself up but that only makes him feel sicker. He shuts his eyes to try to get rid of it but it only makes it worse. "h-hngh-!" His head is killing him- what is this??

Smiling, Marvin stands up. "Have fun with that. I'll be back in... thirty minutes or so to dispel that." And he turns and leaves the room. Bro can hear him go up the stairs but with the darkness and the spiraling fractal patterns he can't see anything.

Bro shakily tries to push up after him. "W-Wait-!" He then crashes to the floor, his chains going taut and his collar choking him. He whimpers and curls up, alleviating some pressure and trying to breathe through the pain. He's a hero- he's strong-! He can handle this.. right?

The patterns show no sign of stopping their dizzying display.

-----------

Being a cat wandering the city at night is very different than wandering it as a person. For one, it's slower. Mag feels like he's been walking forever and he's still in this run-down part of town filled with condemned, vandalized buildings. Or maybe the urban maintenance of this city is just that bad.

Mag growls to himself. It was also slow because he was stabbed multiple times. Just his fucking luck. He tries his best to get around though- looking for a source of magic. Though... hm. If he's back in the universe with that goody two-shoes Anti- then his friends were... a problem. Sure, he got the upper hand on their Marvin and almost won. But, he had been defeated. And trying to steal from those idiots again might get him killed... So- guess the main focus was to try to find his cub. Again... this was starting to get old. He missed having the upper hand.

As he turns the corner, he feels... something. Something familiar. Not a magician, but... some sort of talisman. There's a small alleyway in between two buildings with a large dumpster. A man is shoving garbage bags into it while a second man watches.

Magnificent pauses at the feeling. Huh... he knows that feeling. He slinks into the alley's shadows and prowls closer, trying to get a better look.

The man moving the garbage bags is a stranger, but the other is very familiar. Wearing a red vest and black tie, looking very out of place in this environment, is this world's Jameson Jackson. He must be supervising the disposal of... what is in those bags? Magnificent's enhanced cat nose detects blood and something that smells like death.

Magnificent can't help but hiss at both the sight of Jameson and the smell. He knew the Jackson here was fucked up like all the others- but what the hell was he doing?

Jameson tilts his head... and looks over, right at Magnificent. {That is not the mind of an animal.} The voice says in Magnificent's mind.

Magnificent stiffens and tries his best to keep his mind blank as he backs up and hisses more at Jameson.

Jameson narrows his eyes at the cat... then sighs and turns away. This isn't the time to focus on that. Someone could come across at any minute. He'll keep an eye on that probably-magician and address it after they're done.

  {Hurry up, please,} he tells... ah, he can never remember their names when they're new. But whoever it is, he does speed up on command.

Magnificent blinks almost comically. ... he did not expect that to work. But soon he curls up on the ground, watching with narrowed eyes, his tail flicking. ...if Jackson is up to something- maybe it'll lead him to wherever Alt would be. Plus... he can't help but be curious. This was the magic that held his own fools- he never really got to observe how to worked closely. He can't deny its fascinating.

It's not long before the man finishes putting the bags in the dumpster. Jameson nods, satisfied. Schneep used to be better at disposal, but now he can hardly remember to. A distasteful side effect of the control but one Jameson would have to live with.

{Follow,} he says to his man, and he two of them start walking down the alleyway towards Magnificent. Time to check that out.

Magnificent freezes and backs up more into the shadows- trying to keep his mind blank again. Act like a cat... he's surprisingly good at that. He hisses as they approach then tries to dart past them-

{Grab it,} Jameson commands, and the man scoops up the cat as it runs past, holding it up for Jameson to see. {I thought you might be that man who took Mr. Parker away, but I don't think he would find hypnotism fascinating. And yet there's something familiar about you...} Jameson narrows his eyes.

Magnificent yowls and tries to scratch at the man grabbing him. He hisses and narrows his eyes at Jameson- and as soon as they make eye contact Magnificent tries to send a flood of hypnotic power into him.

The man doesn't let go, seemingly unfazed by the cat scratching. But then Jameson makes eye contact. He staggers backwards from the force of the power. {Oh--I remember you now--} He shudders, closing his eyes, but it's too late. Magnificent has control... but it's not as complete as he would have wanted. Or as it was last time. It's like there's some sort of... slippery coating around Jameson's mind this time, letting him struggle against Mag's power.

Magnificent grins and shifts back into his human form to prowl around Jameson. “Well~! Jameson Jackson… we meet again~! How good it is to see you again, pet~” He hums in amusement. He goes to grab Jameson by the chin then slams him against the alley wall, baring his fangs. “Feels like you have some new tricks up your sleeves… perhaps you can enlighten me to what all you and your devious friends have been up to, hm?” While he still has control- he tries to pry and pick apart Jameson’s memories, seeing what he can learn.

Jameson gasps, a voiceless cry. He tries to hide his memories at first, and then suddenly stops resisting, as if letting Magnificent take them.

What follows is a rapid slideshow of a descent into madness. Marvin's descent into madness, to be specific. Studying with a fervor, taking people to try spells on, stealing and killing and doing anything to get more spells. Mag sees Marvin approach Jameson about controlling the others, something he easily agrees to. First, the spell on Schneep, twisting his mind's tendency for delusions inward. Then, the capture of Jackie, who isn't expecting Schneep's betrayal. The moving to the hotel. The screams from the basement. Chase and Jack's hypnotism, making one the other and forcing the other to listless life. Marvin's continued descent. There's an incident in there with a handful of teens and young adults, that's strange--but even stranger is the more recent memory of just a couple weeks ago. When a ripple of magic spread out from Marvin's apartment in the hotel. Jameson rushed over... and saw Marvin grinning at him with glowing purple eyes, hands full of black violet magic that, even in a memory, gives off this feeling of wrongness that makes the hair on Mag's neck stand up. "I've done it," the memory says. "This is it. This power... I can do anything."

Magnificent breaks the connection and staggers back a bit, processing the information. Then, he throws his head back and laughs, grinning at Jameson. “I see… my stupid doppelgänger has let himself be consumed, hm? How amusing… fascinating to see really~! Maybe I should observe up close…” He muses.

Jameson shudders. {Is it "letting" it happen if one jumps in headfirst...?} The thought drifts into Mag's head, then fades away as his control tightens again.

Magnificent chuckles, “Those of us with stronger will power know how to reach the edge but not fall in~” He sings with confidence. He turns to Jameson and smiles, “Jackson- would you be a dear and lead me to your base of operations?”

He resists for a moment before nodding jerkily. {We... walked here. It's not... too far.} He continues down the alleyway towards the street. The man he had hypnotized just stands there.

Magnificent hums with a smirk and then glances at the man. He makes a shooing motion at him. “We have no more use for you- get lost.” He then follows after Jameson.

Jameson nods, unwillingly agreeing with Magnificent. The hypnotized man wanders off. The other two head down the street, walking to the hotel.

-----------

Anti suddenly stops. "Wait. I forgot." They've reached a part of town surrounded by restaurants and short hotels. They all look fairly old, overtaken by urban decay. The hotel where the others are staying can't be too far now.

Alt pauses and turns to look at Anti, raising an eyebrow, “Forgot what?”

"Marvin." Anti looks at Alt with a serious expression. "Do you know what a Void is? Do they exist in your world? Well, the name might be different..."

Alt furrows his eyebrows and tries to think, “mmm… I feel like my mentor has mentioned something like that… something- consumed completely by black magic? If I had to guess-“

"Yes, that's it exactly." Anti nods. "A couple weeks ago I ran into Marvin while he was out looking for more magic. Or... what used to be Marvin. He's become a Void now. Which means that not only is he much, much more powerful, but he has even less impulse control than he used to and is pretty much running on straight emotion, not logic."

Alt shudders at the description of Marvin and swallows thickly. “Okay… sounds horrifying-“ He does hum in thought though, “…running on emotions- we can work with that though.”

Anti nods. He keeps walking as he talks--more proof that they're close. "We could. I'm sure he's just as easy to distract as he used to be, if not more so. But remember to be careful. That Void magic of his burns like acid."

Alt walks after Anti and shudders again at the mention of his magic. He grips at his bandages and nods. “noted… I would very much like to avoid that-“

"Oh shit, wait, something else." Anti's visible eye widens. "They have the whole place rigged up with a... what's the word? It disperses gas throughout the building. I forgot you breathe. We need a solution for if they decide to use that..."

“They fucking rigged the place with gas?!” Alt gasps. Then he curses and throws up his hands, “Of all the times it would have been nice to have my mask! But nooo Mag had to kidnap me from the comfort of my home where I don’t wear it! Fucking asshole-!” He grumbles.

Anti blinks. "It's like a bandanna, right? Here." He takes his scarf off and passes it over. "That should work."

Alt blinks in surprise and holds up his hands. “hey I can’t just… take your scarf- don’t you need it?”

Anti smiles sadly. "No, not really. Just to hide this." He gestures at the bandages around his neck. "People find it disturbing usually. I do like my scarf, so I'd like it back, but I think having you not pass out if they flood the halls with sedative is a higher priority."

“….I guess I can’t argue with that…” Alt mumbles. He looks at the scarf and then loops it around his neck. He’s not one of scarves usually but- it almost feels like his mask and it helps bring him a bit of comfort. “Heh- wonder if they’ll get us confused easier now.” He laughs.

"Heh. Probably." Anti smiles. "Now come on. We're almost there."

-----------

Bro lost track of time a while ago. The fractal shapes covering his vision haven't wavered once, nor has the pattern repeated. Or... has it? Maybe? The pain hasn't wavered either.

Bro is curled up as much as he can while being restrained. He gasps for breath, grunts in pain and is genuinely just trying to keep going. Keep going- keep going. He’s never felt so fucking sick and dizzy though- it’s like a screw is being drilled into his skull. Part of him is hoping he’ll pass out- but some part of him also whispers that he won’t be that lucky.

He's in too much pain to hear the footsteps coming down the concrete stairs. But he does notice the purple glow that cuts through the shapes, increasing until they burn away. The pain is gone, but its shadow remains.

Marvin is holding his head again, the same way he did to cast the spell in the first place. His eyes fade back to their faint glow as he smiles. "You don't look so good."

Bro cries out as he’s grabbed and then pants in Marvin’s grip. He glares at him and snorts. “J-Jeez- wonder what that is…? Not like I just had my head fucked up by s-shapes or anything-“

Marvin grins. "Noooo, of course not." He's being a little shit and he knows it. "Do you need a moment? Hmmm?" He conjures a handful of black-violet magic, casting a purple glow around the scene. He's holding something else in his other hand but Bro can't quite see it.

“Oh no by all means keep it coming, cat bitch.” Bro drawls out sarcastically. “Why even ask? I know you’re not going to-“

"Correct." Marvin holds up the item in his other hand. It's the glass tube from earlier, but now the liquid inside has turned from clear to opaque. It's hard to tell in the purple lighting, but it's a pastel orange color. "Can you guess what this is?"

Bro leans against the wall and raises an eyebrow at the tube. “Some magic bullshit- if I had to guess.” He snarks tiredly.

"Oh come ooooon, I told you about it earlier," Marvin goads. "Did you forget? I guess your memory isn't that great right now."

“No, I just don’t care-“ Bro tries to quip.

Marvin shakes the tube. "This is your soul essence, Chase." He popped the cap off. "Let's see..." He tilted the tube, sending a drop of the essence into the magic he's holding. Bro feels a sudden sharp pain in his chest. Right in the center.

Bro yells and doubles over, clawing at his chest with a choked gasp of pain.

"You should care," Marvin says. "I wiiiiill admit that the reaction you just had? Very strange. I've never done this before, but I'm sure the spells would list that." He pours a couple more droplets into the magic, Bro feeling the pain again every time, and then caps it. The color of his magic is different now. Very slightly, but it's a bit more red, a bit lighter in tone.

Bro screams out and braces his arm against the floor, bending on his elbow. The other hand clutches at his chest as he heaves through the pain. Bro struggles to lift up his head and then looks at Marvin’s magic with wide eyes. “Wha… what did you do?!”

"I've just infused my magic with your essence," Marvin says, grinning like a madman. "Normally this could mean I could heal you better, or find you easily with a tracking spell. But I want to see what else I can do." He puts the glass vial away and presses his handful of magic against Bro's chest.

“T-That’s insane why would you want to do-?” Bro protests before the magic gets put on his chest. During the awkward moment of silence Bro finally laughs nervously. “…can you not like- try to magic my tit…?”

Nothing happens. Marvin tilts his head, looking thoughtful. Then he stands up, slowly pulling his hand away. The magic stretches into a rope. As Marvin steps backwards away from Bro, he feels a strange pulling sensation in his chest, right where that pain was.

Bro regrets trying to joke as the strange pull makes him let out another choked gasp. He squirms and tries to back up. “Ew ew stop!! That feels fucking freaky!”

Marvin grins. "Does it?" He gives the magic rope a tug. The pulling increases to the point of near-pain.

Bro cries out as he's pulled. He tries not to show how much this is freaking him out. He knows next to nothing about magic- no matter how much Alt explains it to him it just doesn't click. So he's confused beyond all belief right now.

"I wonder... If I remember, your Anti can use electricity, right?" Marvin's free hand lights up with purple electricity. "Has he ever shocked you? Does it feel like this?" He grabs the magic rope with both hands. Violet magic races down it and into Bro.

Bro doesn't even get a chance to answer Marvin's questions before his body is flooded with electricity from the rope. He screams and spasms, crashing into the wall and craning his neck as his body writhes out of his control.

Marvin laughs. His grip on the rope slackens but he doesn't let go. He tilts his head, teeth bared in a smile, eyes alight. "What about this?" One hand crackles with icy power. Before Bro can recover, he sends that down the rope as well.

Bro yells again, now curling up and trying to claw at the burning cold invading his chest.

And he laughs again. "Oooone last try." The final magic is flame, burning violet. It races down the rope.

Bro crashes to the floor, screaming out in agony as he writhes on the ground, straining to try to get away from the burning pain.

Marvin drops the rope, waiting for Bro to calm down, watching with a smile.

Bro blinks pained tears out of his eyes as he heaves and tries to get his senses back. The room tilts and sways and he can hardly make Marvin out through the dizzying vision. "y-you... you bitch...!" He tries to snarl, but he's too wracked with pain to make it sound threatening.

"Not very creative, aaare yoouu?" Marvin says. "Just... impulsive. Like another do-gooder I knew." His face curls in disgust. "I hope the wounds killed him." He leans back against the wall. "Well, let me ask you a question, Chase. What would you prefer? To keep going like this? Or... I could hand you over to Schneep. He was really excited about this. Or maybe I could even hand you to Jameson. Now that I have your soul essence, he could put you under really... really... deep. In all honesty, that one's probably the least painful option for you. Dolls don't feel pain."

Chase struggles to push himself up on shaking arms. He bares his teeth at Marvin, blue trying to light up in his eyes. "Y-You don't s-scare me... W-Whatever you bastards do to me- it won't fucking stick. I won't become some doll or plaything or whatever you sick freaks have planned! Heroes don't get taken down- we keep going." He then laughs, sounding a bit unhinged. "And I know Alt is gonna find me. He probably will find your Anti too- and I know you fucks are scared of him. They'll kick your sorry asses!"

Marvin's eyes briefly flash brighter. "AFRAID of Anti? No, no. Never afraid. And even if we were, that was before. This is now. I've fought him with this new power and he ran like a bitch." He bares his teeth in a sharp grin. "As for your Anti, I'm sure Schneep will be excited for that, too."

Bro's eyes flash bright with blue power and he pushes himself up more, yelling in rage. "If you let that doctor bitch anywhere near Alt I swear to fuck I'll-!"

He stands up straight, moving around in the darkness. "Well, I offered you a choice and you threw it away. Though to be honest, I probably wouldn't have done what you asked anyway. So you're stuck here. With me. And with them."

He gathers magic in his hands and drops it to the ground--once, twice, three times. Each one splashes and forms another cat. Similar to the other one... but bigger. And these ones have claws and mouths with sharp, sharp teeth.

The hero cuts himself off as the new cats form and he slowly tries to back up. He growls and then tries to see if he can shoot Marvin with a concentrated electric blast.

Marvin sidesteps the blast, which cracks against the concrete wall, briefly illuminating the room. The walls are blackened and pitted like they were splashed with acid. Runes are drawn on the floor.

"Oh... I see then." His voice drips with venom. "Have the runes on those shackles worn off? Or does it simply not work on you? Either way, you've fucked yourself, Chase Brody."

And the three cat constructs pounce.

Bro yells out in rage- trying to pull against the shackles to go after Marvin. But, then, the cats pounce. And Chase screams, trying to pull them off or kick them or just- anything! But, soon enough he's back in a heap on the ground, crying out and curling up to try to protect himself.

Marvin leans back against the wall, watching with grim satisfaction.

-----------

The outside of the hotel blends in with the surrounding environment perfectly, not standing out at all. But Jameson walks up to it with certainty, stopping outside the front doors. {This is it,} he says reluctantly.

Magnificent smirks and then gestures towards the door, "Well, Jackson? Are you not going to show me around? I am a guest after all~" He grins.

Jameson grits his teeth and tries to resist, but doesn't quite manage to. He pulls a set of keys out of his pocket and unlocks the door, holding it open for Magnificent to walk inside.

Magnificent giggles and bows a bit to Jameson before striding in. He takes in the look of the lobby and whistles. "My! What a fancy place you all have found~!"

The lobby is empty. Schneep was in here earlier when Bro popped in, but not anymore. Jameson walks in behind Magnificent. {Where... do you want to see?} It's like the question is dragged out of him.

Magnificent hums and then grins at Jameson, “Why don’t you show me where Marvin learned all those interesting things, hm? Perhaps it can help me as well~”

Jameson nods jerkily. He heads around the long desk in the lobby towards a door behind it.

Then, suddenly, lunges for it, reaching under the desk for something--

But shortly after he grabs it he freezes again. A small knife clatters to the floor.

Magnificent yells and tries to stop Jameson- then he growls as he sees the knife fall. He throws out strings to wrap about Jameson as he walks towards him, tsking softly. "Jackson, Jackson, Jackson... must we play these games?"

Jameson stiffens as the strings wrap around him. He tries to struggle against them but Magnificent's power is still too strong. {Yes,} he says, giving him as much of a glare as he can muster. {I've lived too long to fall to an arrogant child like you without a token of resistance.}

Magnificent laughs and then kneels down by Jameson, pulling him up by his hair to grin wide in his face. "And yet, my age hasn't stopped me from overpowering you once again~ How is all that experience aiding you right now, old-timer?" He then throws Jameson's head down to the ground and whips out some magic to keep Jameson pinned. "If you're going to be so difficult- then I'll find all your secrets on my own. You can sit here and writhe for all I care." Mag snorts and then in a flicker of static he disappears behind the door Jameson was heading towards.

As he disappears, he doesn't see a small smile flicker across Jameson's face. He also doesn't notice the small button on the underside of the desk, right where Jameson pulled the knife from.

Behind the door are stacks and stacks of books, paper, manuscripts, and all sorts of writing. It's not very organized, but the sheer amount of knowledge is impressive.

Magnificent laughs quietly and starts to prowl through the stacks, looking for anything interesting.

The variety of these books and texts is also impressive. All very dark magic, of course, but it covers just about any subject. There is a particular emphasis on the body, mind, and soul of a person, and how to use it all to your advantage, how to manipulate it, causing pain. There are also a smattering of texts about other worlds. There is a diagram of the doorway that was used to take them here the first time.

This immediately peaks his interest and he heads over to the diagram- trying to see what Marvin has learned about the doorway... maybe it could help his future plans.

Not much, apparently. This diagram, handwritten in writing that is not Marvin's, talks about how the doorway is something that naturally appears in remote areas around the world. The runes on the stone side are in various runic languages, and some of them are unknown. The only one repeated is an angled spiral in the two top corners. All other known runes mean either "travel" or "world." The magicians have found that they cannot destroy the doorway with magic or conventional means, though there has been debate about doing something so drastic as dropping it in a volcano or putting it in the path of a powerful bomb.

Magnificent does find this interesting though- good to know they're naturally occurring... He could use that to his advantage some day. And them being hard to destroy is a good thing too. Satisfied with this he looks around to see what more there is about the other worlds-

Most of the materials about that are sparse, about theories on why there are other worlds and how to reach them. But there is a book--thin but there--that lists magicians' attempts to reach other worlds.

There is a faint hiss coming from somewhere in the room. But Magnificent is too engrossed in his search and studies to pay it much mind.

Magnificent hums slightly and leafs through the book, reading through the attempts. He doesn't suspect anything is wrong- the pull of knowledge got its hold on him.

Most of the attempts are nothing interesting, more listing what doesn't work than what does. Most often, people disappear in their attempts and never return. But there are a handful of methods that work. It's most reliable to scry into other nearby universes--though which universes are nearby will change, as it seems they tend to move around while still staying in the same general position. Interestingly, the stone doorway is listed as having the potential to send others to new worlds, but it activates rarely, seemingly on its own.

Magnificent finds this fascinating. And can't help but chuckle that he has found a way to power the doorway when whoever wrote this can't. It feels him with a sense of twisted pride. He only needs to learn to control it- or gain control of the device from Alt...

There is a white mist spreading across the floor.

The mad magician blinks and sees the mist spreading across the floor. He stumbles back, "What the?!" He tries to look for an exit.

The door behind him has closed. There is a sweet smell in the air that makes his head spin.

Magnificent staggers and fumbles to hold himself up against one of the stacks. He curses in Gaelic and tries to see if he can teleport out of here.

Can he concentrate enough to do that? Can he muster up the focus? Whatever this is, it's taking effect fast.

He can't concentrate enough- trying to teleport out of the room has him knocking into the wall on the other side of the room. He curses and then feels so dizzy, he crashes down to his knees. "Fucking Jackson-! I should have known...!" He growls angrily, trying to focus on staying awake.

The room continues to fill with sweet fog. Magnificent's head swims and concentrating becomes even more difficult, disconnected thoughts in a darkening mind.

It's not long before the fog overtakes the dark magician and he sinks heavily to the ground, passing out in the fog.

It takes a couple minutes for the fog to disperse. Then the door opens. Schneep leans in, pressing some cloth to his face just in case. Jameson is behind him, doing the same.

"Aha!" Schneep says. "I honestly was not sure that would work."

{He asked for knowledge, and his desire for it overtook him,} Jameson says. {Now then. What shall we do?}

"Marvin is using the practice for the other-universe Chase," Schneep says.

{Oh? He's here too?}

"Yes. I thought he was our Chase before and I was very concerned because he wanted to go outside. So I pressed the button."

{Good job.} Jameson reaches into his vest and touches his watch. {Chase is too sick to go outside.}

"He is," Schneep repeats dully. Then he blinks and is back to normal. "Well we will have to get Marvin for some magic restraints, but we can put him in the operating room for now. And switch out him for the other Chase when it is time."

{That's a great idea.} Jameson nods. {Let's do this now.}

[bots-and-cons]

Hello, it's a me...

Sorry for the recent lack of fic posts, I've been busy and exhausted. I was at my mom's for 10 days and I didn't really have any time to write, nor did I really have any ideas. I think I've got 7 WIPs in total atm, and I haven't really worked on any that are for this blog. I'm gonna try to work on them more now that I'm back at my apartment.

Venting below:

I never really sleep well at my mom's, and my two youngest siblings can be very tiring. They're very energetic and since I'm not there often, they like spending time with me. I don't always have the energy for them, but I force myself to be patient and play with them anyway. I was also left alone a few times with my youngest brother and sister, which I don't really like, because I don't know how to deal with them when they start fighting. It doesn't happen all that often, but when it does, it's not fun.

Also I had a remote psychiatrist (my nurse was also present) appointment on Wednesday and it was shit. I've had to change psychiatrists and stuff because I moved to a new city, and the new one was not very good. I wanted to talk about my fear of my relapsing with my depression, because there have been signs of that recently. I also wanted to tell them about the psychosis symptoms I've been having, because they've been more frequent lately, but guess what the psychiatrist decided to focus on? MY WEIGHT. Because that's definitely what I was there to talk about, for fuck's sake. When she started talking about that, I basically shut down and couldn't say any of the things I wanted to, because I got so upset.

I'm not saying I'm not fat, like I'm well aware I'm obese, and I need to lose weight, but that's really not what the topic was for that day. I was so fucking upset. I know I have a pretty unhealthy relationship with food, but my psychiatrist going from asking me about my meds to recommending me diets is not really going to help. She also said that I shouldn't go to a licensed dietitian, because "they don't really help" and she's not going to write me a referral to one. Needless to say, I didn't really like her after that, and I sent my nurse a little complaint after the appointment. (By little I mean I basically wrote her an essay lol.) I think I'm going to ask to switch psychiatrists, because I do not want to deal with that lady again.

I'm okay now, still kinda annoyed about the whole thing with the psychiatrist but eeeh, I'll live.

[oneatlatime]

Imprisoned

The opening shot's background has to be a watercolour.

I don't see Katara looking for food. If she's going to complain, she can find her own dinner.

This looks comfy.

Sokka two for two so far: only one getting food, only one with any common sense. Sokka has mom friend vibes here.

I see my prediction about Katara going nuts upon meeting a teenage boy who isn't her brother is about to come true.

Looks like we're back up to the standard of beauty set by the Southern Air Temple. It's all so colourful.

"Look at how they're dressed." This brings up a point I've been thinking about: Aang & company know that the fire nation is after them. Why aren't they making even a token effort at disguise? They could even wear the same styles, just in brown or green.

Ah yes, natural.

"how can you say that?" Katara - you've known these people like five minutes and narrowly avoided getting them into trouble once already. Maybe don't go around judging them like you know their whole life story? Also that comparison will mean absolutely nothing to the earthbender's mom. What does she know about your relationship to your waterbending?

Katara is painfully out of character here: "What can the fire nation do to you that they haven't done already?" Would Katara, who has already mentioned multiple times that the fire nation straight up killed her own mother, believe that the Fire Nation would go no farther than a protection racket?

Kudos to the mom for giving them shelter for the night.

Every shot in this episode so far is very pretty. I don't want this post to devolve into 75 screenshots so just imagine I'm going 'ooh pretty' a lot.

And Katara mentions her mother again! See, she's very aware of what the fire nation does.

"It's not enough, is it?" Raw line. And a good point.

At what time of day is this episode happening? The atmosphere seems unnaturally yellow. Maybe it's mining dust in the air?

Not good deed goes unpunished. This won't come back to bite them at all.

Sokka right again on the need to leave asap. Seriously, I do not envy him the impossible task of herding a flighty 12 year old (who also tops the fire nation's most wanted list) and a stubborn-just-because younger sister all the way across the world. Like herding cats, if cats also had the ability to blow you across town and drown you on dry land.

Now it's night time. Ok, must have been some funky dusk lighting.

Nice bait and switch with the soldiers coming to the door. It fooled me.

Sucking water out of the pump like that seems like a great way to lose the prime.

Katara didn't quite force him. But I don't think he would have done it if Katara hadn't been there to talk him into it. I still think it's a little bit her fault, but it wasn't all her fault. Kudos once again to the mom for not blowing up at Aang & friends. They've been in town maybe 12 hours and her son, who has managed to evade capture as an earthbender for - what, five years? - gets immediately arrested.

Katara's plan is to get herself arrested by the same people who, as she intimately knows, have the ability to kill people's moms. You know what, I was right. Katara just goes out of her mind around teenage boys.

Sokka why are you on board with this? They also killed your mom. You know that's a thing they can do. You have no guarantee that these fire nation soldiers are as bad at capturing the Avatar as Zuko is. You saw yesterday that these soldiers are willing to burn down buildings for pocket change, what do you think they'll do to your hotheaded sister who runs her mouth at the slightest injustice?

Avatar universe version of the squirrel joke from Up.

Ok this is obviously an episode with a tone switch in the middle. From super-serious bonding over shared trauma to gooftastic misadventure. Kind of tonal whiplash. I guess I should stop trying to take this episode seriously from this point on.

Poor Sokka. He is surrounded by idiots.

I think Aang's ears are the biggest. Of the humans.

Once again guys, can you not throw something beige on? You're on a stealth mission.

Are the things on the left and right ship hulls under construction? Is the fire nation fleet built by prisoners of war?

Why would anyone think that Katara knows what she's doing? Although I will say that there's no better place to be a waterbender.

So it is a ship yard. Fleet built by prison labour. Huh.

What is up with this warden?

I hereby rescind all previous objections to characters' lack of disguises. This guy is less than a foot away from a water tribe necklace being worn by someone whose sleeves are obviously blue and he spots nothing. Maybe fire nation people are colour blind? Sartorially inept?

Bending racism. Bendism? I'm actually surprised that this is the first time it's really come up. Once I understood the magic system I figured the superiority/inferiority of the elements would be a big plot point.

This show has consistently gorgeous skies.

Was that really the only way to find them? They couldn't have asked around? The prisoners and prison staff need food and supplies. Those have to come from somewhere, so someone knows. I'm putting too much thought into this again.

I think I know the father's voice actor. He sounds familiar.

Katara once again back on her "how can you say that?" bullshit. Judgy much.

Katara put a sock in it! You just announced your very non-earth kindgom origins to the entire rig. And come to the attention of the warden. She has a death wish. How is Sokka going to keep her alive all the way to the north pole?

I like this! I didn't work!

And she's back to being an idiot. Obviously she's going to end up freeing them in the end, because this is a kids' cartoon and they don't get unhappy endings as a rule, but an ending that affirms Katara's bleeding heart tendencies is only going to make things worse in the long run. Because next time she goes on a justice spree and does something even stupider she'll be over confident due to her success here.

You want a way to help them? Defeat the fire nation.

Sokka sure puts up with a lot.

It's a good thing that the Snidely Whiplash division of the fire nation forces is in charge of this particular rig, rather than the mom-killing division.

The humour is not landing with me in this episode.

What was Katara's plan for freeing the prisoners if Sokka wasn't there to come up with the whole plan? Just hope really hard?

The father would be right, if they didn't have the Deus ex avatar with them.

Straight facts from the warden here. If he hadn't kept running his mouth I bet not even the not-yet-broken-in-spirit guy would have acted. But he did keep talking, and so wrought his own downfall. Nice.

Badass line from old guy here, but I'm being a nitpicky little shit today, so I gotta ask: was the warden really a coward? 'Colossal asshole hopped up on his own power' seems more accurate. I guess you can't say asshole in a kids' show.

Appa can keep up with coal-powered ships. Speedy boy. Also where's his saddle in this shot?

You really think you'll be able to take back your villages? You think the fire nation is going to lose out on a source of coal without a fight? Yeah, yeah, kids' show, consequences handwaved.

Perfect one scene summary of Aang: uses prodigious bending powers to play with his friends. Also a callback to the butterfly.

By freeing the boy's father, so that the boy has more than just one thing (his earthbending) to remind him of his family, Katara loses the one thing (the necklace) that she had left of her mother. That is ouch.

Hey Zuko! haven't seen you in a while. Your hand is giant. Your haircut is still trash, but you are surprisingly menacing in this shot.

Bad guy and beautiful sky. As tonally dissonant as the rest of this episode.

Final thoughts

The credits tell me that the guy's name is Haru. I wasn't even going to try to spell it until I saw it written down. They also tell me that his dad is voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson. A quick google tells me that he was in Lilo & Stich, which is where I known him from. Also the warden is George Takei? A bit on the nose to have him playing the warden in a POW camp. Also he deserved a better character.

If it's not already obvious, I don't like this episode. The visuals were consistently beautiful, and it started off strong with exploring loss and the realities of war. Then it descended into girl power fantasy / looney tunes episode. Turns out that Katara's plan for getting through life is to cause problems and let Sokka fix them.

What was Katara's plan for freeing the earthbenders if Sokka hadn't come up with the coal plan? Was she going to try another speech? She was determined to stay until she freed them, but how was she going to do that? Haru getting arrested was somewhat her fault, so she was sort fixing a problem of her own making. Fixing what you broke is a good lesson, but this whole plot line still bugs me.

This kind of turned into a Sokka episode. And it's wonderful how supportive he is of his idiot sister. And he's obviously been that way their whole lives, because Katara basically expects him to fix things. She looks to him for a plan. But it's also not so wonderful how all of his very legitimate (and correct) concerns were steamrolled over. And why was he ok with the fire nation arresting his sister?

Even Aang is kind of a dud in this episode. Why is Aang ok with letting the fire nation arrest Katara?

There was some sibling stuff in this episode that was interesting. Sokka being Katara's constant support even when her problems are very much self-inflicted; Katara expecting Sokka to fix things, or even just keep them fed, to the point where it's basically an unconscious expectation on her part.

Mostly this episode just felt out of character. The backgrounds were consistently gorgeous and it's nice to see Aang take a backseat and get to hang out with some animal friends. But I don't think this one is going on my re-watch list.

I have to come up with a collective noun for Aang, Katara, Sokka, Appa, & Momo.

[equestrianequivalent]

- Arrival -

Is this island really located just above the British Isles? Surely it shouldn't have taken this long to get here. You would think I have travelled for years. Perhaps I'm just bored of sterile white walls and tourist chatter. Not that I can say much of the latter, I'm technically a tourist too, for now. Give it three months and I'll surely behave like I've lived here half my life. Man I wish, imagine growing up on Jorvik. Atleast the destination is worth the age long travel. Still, I really could do without the ferries and tourists and alcohol and half-proper food, and tourists drinking alcohol and ordering too much half-proper food. Guess I'm just tired of people in general huh, shocker. Genius of me to work at a riding camp then. Ah well, they accepted me, it's their problem if I suck at it.

Oh thank god. Announcement lady, my saviour. 10 minutes and I'll be off this thing. Or well probably 15 or 20 with queues accounted, but point stands, I'll be off soon. Couldn't have been more well timed. Jorvik next.

Yeah that ferry ride really took me out. Even my headphone music is starting to irritate me. It's just a quick bus ride left, I'll manage. A quick bus ride of… 20 minutes? So closer to 30 with stops and real life accounted for then. Just a bus ride left, indeed. I'm still on time though, that's what matters. Atleast the bus will have windows, aslong as I can sightsee it's fine. God I hope this stupid bus isn't too full. Am I even at the right stop? Surely. I'm the only one here so far, luckily. No way to sneakily fact check my location though, bummer. Guess I'll just have to trust that my streak of always being at the right place holds up this time too. Who am I kidding, of course it will.

Well that's definitely the bus to Moorland Stables. Good, wouldn't have the energy to deal with a wrong bus line right now. Quite empty too, lucky me. Not that I'm doing too badly, it's hard to stay irritated when the weather's this nice and the nature so fine. They weren't kidding, this island is gorgeous. No wonder equestrians pilgrim here year round. Guess I'm basic for picking summer, though. To be fair, I'm staying past summer, but I'm still arriving at summer. Me and half the world's equestrians with the funds to go, not exactly a contrarian pick. Still, some things are popular for a reason. Just because I'll run into half the world here doesn't mean it isn't warranted. Although, I guess had half the world really been here I'd have dipped before I even got off the ferry. Would've been a shame to call it quits before I even arrive, I could watch this scenery pass by for hours. Who needs horses when you can sightsee. Combining the two will be nice, the best of both worlds. Speaking of, that's the stable in the distance. Finally. I can switch sightseeing for horses for a bit, no worries. An entire quarter of nothing but horses here I come.

God what a thing. Atleast it didn't take too long, but really? The stable's legally threatened, the owner's at god knows where, and I'm getting my horse tomorrow? You'd think I'm starring in a new sitcom. Poor lad should be happy I didn't have the energy to say anything back. Not that he deserved it himself, but still, what a situation. Ah well, free range to check out the stable and "familiarise myself with the horses" is a fair trade for human shenanigans. I'll take it. They didn't say which one I'd have though. Actually, have they even decided that yet? Surely they've assigned their personnel horses by now? Or did the already lost legal case fuck with that too? Whatever, not my problem. Yet. By Aideen, girl, do you do anything but complain?

[polysyndetonaddictsupportgroup]

thanks for answering my question. (Although now I’m horrified that megumi treatment at the zenin clan was even worse then I thought.)

ps do the traditions they forced him to go through actually do anything?

So the short answer is you’ll see.

The long answer is still that you’ll see but also I love prattling on about stories, so some guidelines to sort of contextualize where we are in the story now and what Gojo, Nanami, and Shoko are sort of working with to answer that exact question:

First off, one of the biggest questions is what on earth could be valuable enough to them to risk the sheer shitstorm about to reign down on them.

Like, if there’s this old tradition that they’re trying to fulfill the way Maki thinks they are, you have to ask yourself why they thought it was worth facing the wrath of Gojo Satoru for it. They knew he would find out what they did eventually. They kidnapped Megumi from his goddamn school. His sister fully knew he was missing. While they did cut off their immediate access to him by switching the phone numbers, that’s a very short term solution. Eventually, Gojo’s going to go back to check on his fucking kids again, and it’s either going to be “hey gojo megumis fucking missing” or “hey gojo guess what fun extracurricular activities the Zenin did while you were gone. Also Megumi needs a hospital” depending on how soon he went back. They had to at least accept the danger of "The most powerful man in existence will probably fuck us up over this one."

So maybe the tradition had some kind of special, magical effect that they valued enough to risk it all anyway. Like, Megumi's got the Ten Shadows. It's the pride of their clan. If there's some kind of special, technique specific ritual that would have had a beneficial effect on the techinque itself, and that's what the tradition did, then maybe that would be worth it for them in the long run.

Or maybe they thought it would do something but they're working off of information that's five hundred fucking years out of date. They thought they'd get something out of this and whoopsie, everyone loses.

Or maybe the effect they were chasing didn't directly have anything to do with Megumi at all.

Maybe it was a political move. Like, the Gojo and the Zenin clans are rivals. Gojo is currently at the top of the food chain, to the point where he was able to steal the boy who inherited their most treasured technique right out from under them. That's humiliating for them. He's like, one guy, and he was able to publicly take the kid who should have been their heir from them. He really just said to the entire jujutsu world "yeah so I can and will take whatever I want from the zenin clan and they are all too weak to stop me” and he was fucking right. In their minds, Megumi should have always been theirs to do with as they pleased. They should have been able to perform the traditions around his technique without Gojo ever being a factor. Instead, they have to ask him for his permission and just swallow their pride when he says fuck no.

Actually getting one over on Gojo and performing their tradition anyway would be a public failure of his, and it would serve as a morale booster for the rest of the clan. Like, it's embarrassing for the clan leadership to have not been able to maintain custody over the kid they've been harping on about for literal centuries. Like, they were all probably excited to be alive to witness their clan's mightiest technique, only for the clan leadership to just... lose the literal battle for custody. Maybe the clan leadership wanted to send a message that, Gojo Satoru or not, they would be keeping all the traditions around the technique, and Megumi was just collateral damage to a political machination.

Or maybe it's all of the above. It could be that they thought the tradition would do something but also wanted the political effects. Or it could be none of the above and something else entirely.

That is, effectively, the sort of thought process that Gojo, Nanami, and Shoko have been running themselves through in order to figure out what the fuck happened. But this is all complicated by, secondly, the fact that we have no idea if all of what they did to Megumi was part of a tradition.

Like, Maki's theory that the Zenin did this because of their traditions was formed because of the use of the ceremonial kimono. But there were parts leading up before and after that, and we're sort of building the plane in reverse to figure out which parts they actually needed to do to uphold the tradition.

The thing is that they have wanted Megumi to be in their sole control since he was a little kid. They don't want fucking Teen Dad Gojo Satoru, Elected To Follow The Village Model With These Other Two Teenagers Who Are Also Here rolling up to ask pointed questions about what the fuck they think they're doing. There is probably a laundry list of things they would do to him if given half a chance. This is the first time in years that they've gotten to be in contact with him, and it's the longest time ever that they've gotten with him. So maybe they were just going down a list of things they wanted to get done, not all of which was part of an ancient tradition, and we can't attribute all of the effects of this to whatever tradition they may have been upholding.

Did they have him fight curses for days because the tradition demanded it? Or were they trying to see how he handled combat, because they haven't gotten to assess him themselves in years? Or were they just spiteful and punishing him for not being everything they dreamed of for all those years? Was it something else entirely?

This is not going to be discussed in anymore explicit detail than it already has been in the fic, so I'll go ahead and use it as a good example of what I mean: The entire thing with the private bathhouse and Megumi not being allowed to bathe himself. That wasn't actually required by any tradition. The Zenin could have simply let him bathe himself and chose not to.

I included that part for two reasons: 1) It was a very visceral way of conveying how Megumi was effectively viewed as clan property instead of a person and 2) it really put into perspective Megumi's likely emotional state around the clan.

I tried to imply in other places in the fic that this is not the first time they've forced Megumi to be bathed by Zenin clan servants against his will. When Maki is telling Yuuta about when the Zenin still had visitation, she mentions in passing that the first thing they would do is hand him over to the servants to be made "presentable." Then, later, when Megumi's talking about being handed over to the servants, he says it was “like when he was a kid.” They’ve fully done this to him before. This was a pretty common occurrence back when the Zenin had custody of him, and it was part of the reason why he hated them so much.

I am a firm believer in the fact that kids should be allowed to set their own boundaries and that it's stupid to get mad at people who are very small and under a lot of stress and have no control over their own life and very limited words to express their frustration with when they get upset. Like, from Maki, we get the impression that Megumi was a little hellraiser as a kid, but if you put it in the context of what was going on in his life, it's a lot less of "precocious and poorly behaved kid likes to act out" and more "kid in a very abusive environment is trying to protect himself the only way he knows how."

On its surface, having servants to bathe and dress you is like, very old world nobility. It's something you'd find in a period piece. It made sense to me that the Zenin, who have some very old sensibilities, wouldn't find it as out of the ordinary as most people would. But it's probably not something that the entire compound is doing--that would just be logistically impractical and weird. But Megumi inherited their most treasured technique, so it makes sense that they would sort of exceptionalize him--like with a private bathhouse manned by clan servants.

But when you take into account how badly he did not fucking want to do any of that, then the dynamic shifts more from "important nobility" to "prized dog of noble getting handed over to the servants to be washed."

Like, Megumi explicitly asked to do it himself and they ignored him. As a kid, we know less about what happened, but we also know that he was biting people and stomping the clothes they forced him to wear into the mud, so we can probably guess he wasn't exactly thrilled with the situation.

When he was a kid at least, I always imagined it kind of like the clan leaders trying to scrub away the physical evidence of his life outside of them.

Like, they only got him two or three days out of thirty. He didn't even want to be there during those scant few days. He never took the Zenin name. He'd show up dressed the way he always did for his life outside of it, and it wasn't in accordance with the Zenin way. Everything about him was a reminder that they did not succeed in bringing the Ten Shadows into the clan. But, they still got him for a few days a months. And during those few days, they could force him to fill the shoes of the long-awaited holder of the Ten Shadows technique. So he would get on the compound and be immediately dragged off to have any evidence of the rest of his life washed off and be properly clothed in Zenin fashion.

Only Megumi was a six year old kid who didn’t want to be there to begin with, didn’t want to wear those clothes, and didn’t want strangers touching him. If we recontextualize Megumi’s actions as a kid from “little hellion acting out” to “kid getting steamrolled at every possible turn desperately trying to regain any sense of autonomy or control,” then like. Yeah. It’s pretty safe to say he told them to stop and they just didn’t. He was literally biting people at this time. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to say “hey maybe the kid really wants us to stop touching him.”

And the thing is that the Zenin could have very easily made that concession and didn’t. Like, at age 6, Megumi was old enough to bathe himself and had probably been doing it for a long time, considering he had No Adult Supervision Whatsoever for a while. They could have agreed to just let him do it himself to make him more comfortable. They didn’t, because megumi, at the end of the day, has always been someone the Zenin have felt entitled to.

They have never felt the need to accommodate him or make him want to join the clan because the idea they have to do anything to make the Ten Shadows join the clan is insulting to them. The Ten Shadows belongs to the Zenin. It's always been that way. It's inconceivable that they would ever have to concede anything to get something that, in their minds, is rightfully theirs.

Fundamentally, the clothes he wears or how he looks while at the clan don't really matter. He could probably train better when he was in clothes he was familiar with, so if anything, forcing him to dress in clothes they selected was an active detriment to them. It was legitimately just... ego and stubborn pride driving it. The clan leadership wanted the Ten Shadows to be presented to them precisely as they always imagined him and weren't about to leave a six year old in charge of that because they didn't want the inconvenience of him getting ready differently from the exact preference. Servants could just do it right the first time, and that's enough justification for them to override megumi's bodily autonomy. There's no real deeper meaning behind it than that. It was just a frivolous want on their part, but for Megumi, it was his sense of control over his own life and his physical comfort. They just valued their own passing fancy higher than his mental wellbeing. He had all of the autonomy of a dress up doll when he was on the Zenin clan estate. They wanted him to be someone other than who he was, and they violated a lot of his boundaries to try and force him in those shoes.

Then, you take it in context of what just happened, and it's a lot worse. Like, at least at age six, that's still an age where some kids are still helped in the washroom for safety reasons. Some parenting books even recommend that they still be helped at that age. But when you're fifteen, you absolutely can bathe yourself (barring extenuating circumstances, which didn't exist here). They can't even lie to themselves with "oh he was still a young kid and the fucking dr. oz parenting book says that you should wait until they're seven or eight before you let them be in the bath unsupervised."

To be clear, when you're a young child, you still deserve to be able to safely assert your boundaries and desires, but parents do have to consider factors like "yeah that kid has the motor control of a watermelon on pool noodles they WILL slip and die if we leave them in the shower unsupervised." But it wasn't about that with the Zenin, and the fact that they did this to him again at age 15 really underscores that it had never been about that for them, and they had never seen a problem with it. He was the Ten Shadows, and he belonged to the Zenin clan, and they have always felt entitled to do what the pleased with him. His own desires were so tangentially unimportant that it never gave them pause, and they violated him in a very egregious way. Not even his literal person was off limits for them.

And I think all of this can potentially reflect on Megumi's own emotional state regarding the Zenin clan and trauma surrounding them.

For one thing, being bathed against your will is just sort of humiliating. It requires a lot of vulnerability. You're left completely exposed.

Then there's the added layer of the fact that Megumi's a pretty seasoned combatant at this point, and all Zenin clan servants are mostly noncombatants. Like, under normal circumstances, Megumi should be able to overpower them. For whatever reason this time, he couldn't or didn't. Maybe he was too exhausted and weak after fighting the curses and being actively injured. Maybe they had combatants in the room to restrain him if he resisted. Or maybe they had another way of ensuring his compliance.

I think Megumi's a person who's struggled with control and feelings of helplessness a lot in his life, and his own ability in a fight is one of the ways he's regained a sense of control over his life (like with his bullying days). Here, he was being (from his perspective) humiliated. He either was too weak to protect himself from noncombatant servants, or he had to swallow his pride and allow them to do it even when he could have otherwise stopped them. And it's all reopening the old wounds from his childhood and reminding him of how helpless and powerless he was when the Zenin used to have him.

It is infuriating to be at someone else's mercy. It is mentally traumatizing. Megumi's mostly been unconscious for sea glass gardens, but if he wasn't, well. He would not be doing well mentally or emotionally right now.

That's the real issue with Gojo, Nanami, and Shoko figuring out what the hell happened and why the Zenin did this to him. Maybe the tradition actually does something. Or maybe it was politically motivated. Or maybe they only thought it did something and it did something they weren't expecting entirely. Or maybe it's a mix of motives. Maybe some of the things they did to him were motivated by a tradition and some weren't, and they can't untangle the effects. There's a lot of options and not a lot of leads to follow for the answers, and the only people who have the answers are the Zenin, who have never once willingly shared information about megumi or his technique.

[all-eyes-no-dragon]

How about we try reincarnating/isekaiing someone who isn't a salaryman or otaku NEET

Let's isekai a jock who cant believe this shit is happening, someone who doesn't know about anime or game tropes and doesn't immediately assimilate to the new world

Someone who won't just ignore their past life to the point where viewers even forget they're from another world because it just isn't relevant

Isekai has a lot of potential but they keep using the same rinse and repeat tired dry formula

Isekai people and not have others swoon and randomly fall at their feet for absolutely no reason despite the MCs having personalities as flavourful as the sand in the sandbox at the play park

Isekai more women, old people, little kids, uh college students maybe? I don't think I've ever seen a college student be isekaied before

Where's "I Just Wanted To Get My Degree In Archeology But Now The Prince From Another World Won't Stop Proposing Because He Thinks I'm A Goddess"?

Where's "Grandpa Retired But Fell Down A Hole So Now He's The Ultimate Baker In Another World"?

Where's "My Parents Hired A Fairy To Come To My Birthday Party But It Ended Up Being The Real Deal And Now I'm Stuck In Another World"?

Where's "I Scour This New World, Searching For A Way Home"?

Personally, "I Don't Have Time For An Adventure, I Need To Be Back By Dinner" sounds like a charmer to me.

Down with lookalike bland harem protagonists with no personality, dimensions and the exact same jobs (or in the case of the lack thereof)/hobbies (gaming, or however they want to spin it). Heck, these guys are basically all going to the same worlds as well so they've basically all got the same stories too. A shame.

This is why people hate isekai, which I think is a shame really, cuz I love the concept. Just,, I prefer to cherry pick the genre for gems

Side note: let isekai protags say weird shit that no one understands because

👏 cultural 👏 barrier 👏

C'mon, this is a different world, there's gotta be some basic stuff the protag might say and be met with blanket stares

Like in re zero apples are called appas

Totally small stupid and inconsequential but u look stupid af if u call it anything but an appa

Now, if u were reincarnated and had to grow from a child, I suppose u would have time to assimilate to the culture.

Ugh, but I wish they would let reincarnations stay kids longer. If their old world is gonna become obsolete, I want to see them slowly lose that. Forget people's faces, the names of their coworkers, what street they lived on. Forget the smell of their favourite flower, the taste of their favourite food. Forget what the texture of jeans feel like. Make me feel emotions.

Let's see them weird out their new parents by not being used to the New World's culture. Let's see people shrug off them accidentally talking about stuff because wowiee, kids say the darnest things

Stop having isekai kids gather 10 wives at the tender age of 9 :)

I like the MC of the webcomic "The Beginning After The End" 's stance on the dubious subject of having romantic relationships as a reincarnator (or at least, I like it so far. I'm mid 100s into the comic so idk if they about to switch up)

Basically the MC died as an adult so he sees all the kids "his age" as children and he even said a line about how he would be a criminal if he got romantic with one of the girls who like him 🤣

I guess it's up to self perception? Like, this body is 13 but my brain is 45. Which am I actually, then?

Let reincarnators be confused about this as well, cuz even irl people debate this a whole lot (cuz it's just one of those "well, technically" things. I think the fact that we even have to go "technically" to excuse it is a bit of an ouch tho)

I'm open to other views and counter arguments on any of the things I've just said, tbh. These are just some things I think are missed opportunities. Like, people will keep watching and watching it even if it's the same thing (why do you think there's so many "Peter Parker's Field Trip To Stark Industries" fics? People will continually consume the same thing slightly tweaked if they like the premise enough). I just think changes to how we approach isekai might bring in some new viewership and increased positive opinions on the genre

Also, the comically long titles are a fun thing but I know some people abhor them. They want titles that are creative and don't basically just summarise the show's premise. Because, with a title like that, it shows a lack of creativity and ingenuity. Not to say that it needs to be toned down all the way, just reduced to keywords.

"Undead Unluck"

"Spy x Family"

"Dragon Ball"

"First Night With The Duke"

"Little Shop Of Horrors"

"Villain To Kill"

"Pride & Prejudice"

"Cirque Du Freak"

"Mirror Image"

(Yes, I did just write down the names of random things I like. 3 animes, 3 books, 2 webcomics and a,, movie/play(?) I watched it as a play, anyways. okay, the 3animes is kind of a lie, I'm impatiently waiting for undead unluck to come out as an anime. ive never consumed any content for it but the trailer)

These titles give you a vague idea of important symbols/things in the narrative, no? But you don't know exactly was going to happen.

But I'm only speaking for some people, I find the long titles to be funny and a bit intriguing. Of course, I wouldn't mind some good old fashioned original names being brainstormed. These thoughtlessly long titles allow all these different producers to just pump out what is, at its core, basically the same ideas, just switched up a bit so the homework doesn't look copied

[leviackermanscleaningbuddy]

Hello, this question is for the pack. My question is what does the pack usually do when it's y/n's time of the month? And who is the most protective at that time? ( i have a pretty good guess on who it is 😉 ) anyways i love you all <3<3<3 

-<3-

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, before anybody looks at me-" Chan immediately blurts out, waving his hands, already ready to fend off an attack. "-I'm always protective. Of everyone. So this doesn't count."

"It absolutely counts." Minho snorts, rolling his eyes. "But we'll discuss that later."

"Surprisingly-" You laugh, patting Chan's thigh in a sign of silent moral support. "-the omegas probably get the most protective over me around that time."

"It's because a human period pretty much mimics, to a lesser degree, an omega heat." Hyunjin protests, as if he has something to explain. "The cramps, the mood swings, the general shittiness."

Felix is nodding along. "Yeah, and something about that flips a switch, and all of us feel the need to take care of (Y/N), just like we band together and take care of each other when we're in heat."

"No one gets it unless they've been through it." Jeongin adds wisely, Felix ruffling his hair affectionately.

"And I appreciate it more than you'll ever know." You beam at the three omegas. "You always know just how to make me feel better-whether it's a warm bath, or my favorite food, or snuggle piles."

"My periods used to be actually really bad when I was younger." You continue, thinking back, brow furrowing. "Like, out of commission for a couple days bad. But ever since I got on birth control, they've been slightly more bearable. Still not enjoyable though."

"She gets cranky." Jisung whispers loudly, like he's letting everyone in on a secret.

"I do." You nod in affirmation, wincing slightly. "I always feel like shit, and it makes me that much more sensitive to what the omegas go through in heat. Because I know a period is only a tenth of a degree of what a heat is."

"Yeah, but you go through a period every month." Hyunjin shudders, eyes haunted. "We only have to do a heat twice a year."

"Being a girl sucks balls." Jeongin nods seriously, and Minho sighs, clearly resisting the urge to cuff the youngest ears for his crude language.

"It's fine." You shrug, and then laugh. "But if I could go on suppressants for my human period, I totally would in a heart beat."

"As for Christopher." Minho directs the conversation back to Chan now, who instantly tenses beside you, knowing what's coming next, judging by the smirk sliding across the other alpha's face.

"Minho-"

"Remember a certain breeding kink we mentioned?"

"Oh my god." Chan huffs beside you, ears already red, rolling his eyes. "Please don't."

"It's fine, Channie." You laugh again, fingers curling around his own. "Seriously. Sometimes a good dicking down helps honestly."

"Yah!" Minho exclaims, pointing at you sternly, covering Jeongin's ears frantically. "So you taught the baby!"

Hyunjin rolls his eyes. "Hyung, he lives with Jisung."

Jisung looks slightly proud, nodding his head to Hyunjin's words.

"Anyway." You continue, feeling Chan's hand relax in your hold as you keep talking. "My human cycle is the only time I can get pregnant, yeah? Cause I'm an alpha and I don't have heats. And obviously I'm on birth control right now, so my periods are pretty regularly scheduled, so I can plan for them accordingly. But they still put Channie on edge."

"It's not me, okay?" Chan speaks up now, defending himself tiredly, as if he's had this conversation a hundred times. "It's him."

"I know." You offer sympathetically, patting his thigh. "I get it."

"It's alpha mentality." Changbin shrugs, and Seungmin nods beside him proudly. "Every omega heat that goes by without a pup is a failure in nature's eyes. Even if said omega is on birth control and no one in the pack is ready for pups. The wolf doesn't understand that."

"So every month, when I get my period on schedule, Channie's wolf sees it as another missed opportunity, another failed attempt. Even though we weren't attempting anything in the first place." You shrug.

"Okay, biology nerds." Jisung snorts. "We're snoring here."

"Shh, hyung." Seungmin puts his hand over the beta's mouth as casually as if he's quieting a protesting child. "The adults are talking."

"But the omegas tend to know that I don't feel well, so they usually keep me pretty isolated." You laugh. "It's one of the few times they don't defer to the alphas."

"And that's an omega thing." Hyunjin nods. "Because alpha mentality views a period or the end of an unsuccessful heat as a failure, where omega mentality sees it as a mate that's suffering and needs to be protected from another premature attempt to breed."

Jisung speaks around Seungmin's palm now, voice muffled.

"And beta mentality is just to get the hell out of the house when it's period week."

[dontfeeltoohot]

OMG could we have more of snz kink Steve & allergic Eddie??? That was glorious. Esp if he starts teasing Steve omg

Ok, this is kind of a sequel to this fic that I wrote. I hope you all enjoy! I've had a lot of inspiration the past few days, especially with these two boys, so send a prompt! I'll be trying to get to them all, and make the most out of my last four weeks being on LOA from work.

Enjoy friends!

+ + +

After the Friday the 13th incident (as Steve has so nicely dubbed it in his mind), he pays more attention to Eddie and the small sniffles he makes out of nowhere, or the random sneezes he stifles. He'd been too preoccupied with the literal end of the world before to really be paying attention to anything but keeping people safe. Now though, he's able to shift some of his focus to the newest member of their weird little clan that's been through so much together.

He's been trying to keep it as subtle and secretive as possible, the guy knows his crush is already obvious, if Robins raised eyebrows and smirks are anything to go off of when he and Munson are together. And yeah, the guitarist is gay and doesn't care who knows, but Steve isn't, and he's worried that the other man might reject him. Eddie isn't anything like Steve had imagined in his mind, and for that he's grateful. The doe-eyed man has somehow wormed his way into Steve's life, and the nineteen year old doesn't have any intentions of that changing.

The most interesting thing Steve has noticed is that Eddie is a generally sneezy person. He assumes that's why he keeps the black bandana in the back left pocket of his pants.  Steve's been keeping a mental list of the things he's noticed the curly haired man seems to be sensitive to, which has more than he'd first envisioned.

Cleaning supplies (or at least Lysol), freshly cut grass, some kind of perfume Nancy wears, and as of late, he's noticed Eddie's been scrubbing his nose more when they've been in Henderson's house for a movie night or to pick him up and say hello to his mom. Steve can only guess it's the twenty thousand cats the woman owns.

Tonight he, Eddie, Robin, Nancy, and Jonathan are going to some diner down in east Hawkins to get some food and then maybe see a movie or look around the shops. As Steve tries on different shirts with his jeans, he has to remind himself this isn't a date. It's not like Eddie's going to care what he wears, but even still, he takes an embarrassingly long time switching shirts before he finally goes with a white undershirt, his dark green sweatshirt that has a navy stripe across the chest, and his new navy Members Only jacket.

Stepping outside, the bitter November air hits him, but he brushes it away, much preferring this to the hot muggy Summer that Hawkins always experiences. He's supposed to pick up Eddie at 5, and it's already 4:46, so he books it to his BMW and speeds off, trying not to imagine all the things he and Eddie could do if they were dating.

+ + +

A knock on the door makes Eddie look up from where he's standing in front of the small bathroom mirror, making sure his hair is tamed. Checking himself one last time quickly, the eccentric man heads to where the person is still knocking. He yanks the door open abruptly, smirking when Harrington jumps, putting a hand to his chest.

"Jesus Munson!"

"Hey babe, just have to grab my jacket and we'll be good to go," he lets Steve step inside while he heads to the back room of the trailer, grabbing his leather jacket and vest. As he ambles back up front, Eddie leans into the bathroom and grabs a couple of tissues, wiping his nose as he comes back to the other man, half shrugging his jacket on and half still rubbing at his nose.

"You good?" Steve gestures to the tissues and he nods, sniffling involuntarily.

"Yeah, my allergies have just been bothering me today. Must be from all the rain the past couple of days, always kicks up the shit from the leaves and stuff," he explains, watching Steve closely.

That's the thing. Eddie is starting to think that maybe Steve is into him, with how much they flirt, but there also seems to be a tendency for Steve to glance over more often when Eddie's allergies start acting up. The campaign leader isn't sure if Harrington is worried, annoyed, or disgusted. But with the way he's caught his eyes lingering for a few seconds after, it tells Eddie that it might be an entirely different reaction all together. So tonight, he's going to test this theory out.

Steve's eyes dart around as he explains to the man, but he doesn't seem grossed out by it at all. He doesn't seem to display any kind of emotion, so Eddie lets it drop for now and opens the front door.

"After you, King Harrington."

"Man, that stopped when I left high school," Steve huffs out, rolling his eyes.

Eddie smirks, loving how up in arms Harrington gets sometimes about such simple little teases. As he locks up, the guitarist sniffles a few times, scrunching his face a little at the intense smell of the outdoors. Clearing his throat, he follows to the car, getting in and shivering.

Steve starts the mix tape Eddie's made for him, and a burst of warmth spreads through the seniors chest, making him feel a little fuzzy. Steve still had his mix tape, and more importantly, he seemed to actually enjoy it. Score one for Munson. As Iron Maiden plays, Steve beats his fingers on the steering wheel in time with the drums and Eddie thinks he might actually melt right inside Harrington's car, a puddle of goo. 

His thoughts are cut off when a tickle starts to gently make itself known inside his head. His nose twitches a little, dimples appearing as he contorts his face to try and make the feeling go away. No such luck. The second he pulls out his trusty black bandana, he can see Steve shift from the corner of his eye. Eddie rubs the material against his nose for what feels like the twentieth time today, trying to either rub the itchy feeling away, or get it to crest. Either way, it’s taking longer than he’d like. Finally, after almost twenty more seconds of scrubbing at his twitching, runny nose, the guitarist's eyebrows knit together and the tickle ramps up. 

“hih’GXxt! ih’NKhht! h’nGXT’uh! …hih’ktschh! Jesus, sorry.” 

The last one sneaks up on him and he barely has time to aim it into the bandana that’s now on its  way back to his pocket. Glancing over, Eddie smirks a little, seeing the ex-lifeguard white knuckling his steering wheel. 

“You okay Harrington? Sorry if that was gross,” he plays it off, brushing his long curls away from his face. 

“Yeah, yeah. Sorry,” the guy clears his throat and stares forward. “Just surprised me, is all. I was zoned out to the music.” His cheeks are dusted pink and he licks his lips. 

“Right, okay,” Eddie drawls, wondering if this sudden confidence in his theory should be tampered down. But if his theory is wrong…the worst that can happen is an awkward laugh about it. And any kind of laughing with Harrington, even awkward, is a win in his books. 

Steve looks over, raising an eyebrow. “What’s with the sarcasm?”

“No idea what you’re talking about, babe.” 

It’s the second time he’s said it tonight, and well worth it for how bright the red blush is on Steve’s cheeks. He leans closer to the driver seat, sniffling innocently. He thinks he sees his hands tighten on the wheel. Eddie stays leaning a little closer on the armrest in between them for the rest of the ride, a few more sniffles escaping from him. 

Oh yeah, tonight’s going to be fun. 

+++

The second he steps out of his car, he lets out a breath and puts his hand to his face, swiping downward. Whatever tension between them that’s been building for a while; the teasing and nicknames and smirking, coupled with Eddie’s allergies are going to be the death of him. He’s fought monsters from a literal other dimension and lived, but Eddie Munson in his car with his big brown eyes, his snark and his allergies? Yeah, this is his last night on earth. Jesus. 

Opening his eyes, Steve tries not to jump a foot in the air. Eddie is standing right there, maybe half a foot away, looking at him curiously. 

“Are we going in or are we going to stand out here while everyone else orders,” the older boy nods towards the windows of the diner, where their friends can be seen sitting in a large booth. 

“Sorry, sorry,” Steve manages to throw a smile at him, then beelines it inside. Jonathan and Nancy are on one side of the booth, so Eddie and Steve squish in next to Robin on the opposite side. 

“Lucky I’m tiny, huh?” Eddie jokes as he looks at the laminated menu. Steve snorts, even if it’s true- the guy is tiny, but not in the weak and pitiful way, just in the lanky, hot way. Biting his lap at the thought, Steve forces himself to focus on the menu and not the fact Munson’s shoulder is brushing his own. As the group talks, Steve feels the weight shift against his shoulder, and glances over. 

Eddie’s rubbing at his nose subtly with his knuckles, and from here, having just barely an inch on the guitarist height wise, Steve’s just barely able to see his nostrils twitch against his hand. And oh shit, it hasn’t connected in his mind that this could be happening with them so close to each other until just right now. Eddie sniffles again, his eyes starting to flutter shut. A moment later he’s bringing his arm up to his face, pressing his nose and mouth into the crook of it. Steve loses all of the air in his lungs as the curly haired man turns away from Robin and closer to him, close enough his elbow is actually touching Steve’s arm. 

“h’gKXt! hih’kKGX’uh! ih’Kkt’uh!” 

Steve watches with rapt attention, not even noticing the others who; mercifully, are still talking, too engrossed in their conversation. Eddie slowly brings his arm down, then looks up at Steve, his already large eyes somehow bigger, and he blinks. 

“Sorry,” he sniffles a little obnoxiously, but Steve finds it endearing- even like this Eddie has to add some kind of dramatics. “They snuck up on me,” the man adds, finally reaching for his bandana. 

Feeling like he’s been electrocuted, Steve notices Eddie’s free hand; the one that’s not currently rubbing his nose in slight desperation, moves closer to his. 

“It’s uhm….you’re fine,” he croaks out, face feeling hot. Eddie smirks, he fucking smirks, and Steve’s eyes widen just slightly, body stiffening. 

“You know.” 

“Oh, I know Harrington. I’ve been trying to figure it out for a while, but I think this confirms it,” Eddie’s tone is teasing and quiet, but he doesn’t sound grossed out or disgusted. 

Watching him with eyes still big, Steve swallows, licks his lips, then smiles when Eddie gives him one of his dramatic, over the top, crowding your space looks. It crumbles quickly though, eyebrows knitting together again, and Steve suddenly has a front row seat to Eddie Munson trying to fight off another fit of allergic sneezes. The man doesn’t bring his arm up with time, doesn’t even bother with his bandana. Instead, the guitarist simply lowers his head, just enough though that Steve can still watch. 

“eh’GKxt!! ihKXxt! hhH! h’ihGKt’uhew!” 

Steve squirms just barely, the last sneeze as close to an un-stifled sneeze as he’s ever heard from him. The last part goes higher pitched, more vocal. Eddie rubs his nose against his bandana roughly; Steve can see how he’s rubbing the cloth in little circles, obviously trying to work out the tickle. 

“Bless you!” Robin chimes in and Eddie smirks at Steve behind his bandana, then turns to Buckley.

“Tha’gks. I uh…I might need to take a rain check actually, my allergies are bothering me,” his voice is anything but embarrassed, and Steve feels someone knock their foot against his. Steve nods, giving a sympathetic look, though not feeling sympathetic in the least. 

“I’m going to take him back, but you guys enjoy, okay?” 

A round of ‘feel better’s ring out from the other three, and soon the two are walking back to the car in silence, aside from the more frequent sniffles from Eddie. When they’re both in, Steve looks at him again. His eyes are a little red, but it’s his nose, his damn perfect nose, that looks like it needs attention. It’s runny and twitching and so very obviously allergic, and Steve is frozen, just staring. 

“You know Harri’gton, I’d be somewhat inclined to kiss you, if you asked…” he trails off, giving Steve the most cocky yet innocent look he thinks he’s ever seen in his life.

 God, kissing Eddie Munson. Four months ago that would have sounded like a nightmare. Now…..now he’s leaning forward, pressing his lips against Eddie’s, moaning quietly when the curly haired man nips at his lips. He pulls back abruptly, and Steve once again feels like he’s won the lottery, when he gets to watch Eddie now, unrestrained and obviously irritated. He scrubs at his nose, rubbing it upwards against his palm, creasing the bridge in a way Steve squirms at. 

“Dohhn’t cream your pants y-yet H-hh! Harrihhh-gKT! hih’ngKT! h’NXt! Harington. F-fuhhck…” 

Eddie’s nose is back in his bandana, being rubbed and wiped. 

“My place?” 

“God yes.”

[twiceasfrustrating]

I wish you would write a fic where you make your self insert have some well deserved rest. >:)

Rating: General Audiences 

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

Category: NB/M/M

Fandom: Shall We Date?: Obey Me!

Relationships: Simeon/OC, Simeon/Solomon, Solomon/OC

Characters: NB!OC, Simeon, Solomon

Additional Tags: fluff, Original Character(s)

Summary: Naomi has a habit of staying up too late. When they get tired, they pass out on top of their boyfriend.

A/N: Naomi isn't actually a self-insert. I just use their name online. I know, it gets confusing. I guess it gets more confusing because they were that OC that got traits back when I was trying to figure myself out. Though some of those traits remain, they are their own character now. They've been my OC for… almost 10 years now. Sheesh

Word Count: 968

Naomi stood over the kitchen stove, lazily flipping the omelet in the pan over and finishing it up to slide it out onto the plate next to them. Hopefully, that would be enough food for everyone today, because they didn’t think they could manage to make anything more; omelets, sausage (turkey just for Solomon), and a shake made and ready to go for their cute girlfriend’s long day (because she never had time to sit down for a full meal when she had to work). 

They set it all aside and covered it properly to keep it warm for when everyone eventually got up. Now it was time for them to crash after a full night of working and a full morning of cooking.

They stepped out of the kitchen intending to head up to their bedroom, only to pass through the living room and see a head of brown hair facing away from them on the couch.

“Simeon?” they yawned as they spoke. “I didn’t realize you were up already.”

He turned his head back to look at them, smile brighter than the sun. “I would have said good morning, but you don’t like being disturbed when you’re cooking.”

“Unless you and Solomon secretly switched bodies, you’re allowed to go into the kitchen. In fact, breakfast is ready.”

“Oh? Thank you, as always. Although,” he paused for a moment as he examined their tired eyes, “maybe you’d like a moment to relax. I’m sure getting up early to make breakfast for everyone is tiring for night owls like you.”

“I didn’t get up early…” But relaxing for a little bit sounded like a good idea.

Naomi crawled onto the couch next to him, almost immediately flopping over onto him as they spread out like it was their bed. They curled up with their head in his lap and their knees pressed against their chest as the sweet promise of sleep led them into temptation. His fingers twisted around the curls of their green hair as he watched them take slow, uneven breaths; the kind you take when you notice yourself breathing and can't stop thinking about how to do it normally. The small scrunched-up corner of their eyebrow told him they were not pleased with their efforts.

"Are you just now going to bed?" He felt the need to ask, but he wasn't looking forward to the answer. He already had a sneaking suspicion of what it would be.

"Mhm," they hummed as they buried their face against his stomach.

"Naomi-"

"No," they pouted as they pressed into him more. "It was important."

"What's more important than making sure you actually get some sleep?" he asked but received no reply as Naomi had fallen asleep in his lap.

He sighed as he looked down at their calm, relaxed expression. It really must have been a long night if they fell asleep that quickly after putting their head down.

He figured it was in the boyfriend code not to jostle them, so he stayed where he was and let them rest. Although, he did admit that it would be inconvenient once he has to get up to go attend some other business. Still he enjoyed being their makeshift pillow when they needed one and he would be content to stay as one for as long as he could.

Until Solomon came into the living room, anyway. The mockery started as soon as he walked into the room, sauntering up to the couch where he lifted up Naomi’s legs and slid into place next to Simeon.

He wrapped his arm around Simeon’s shoulder. “The living room is a little public for PDA, don’t you think?”

Simeon looked at Solomon judgementally, as if the man’s first action wasn’t to also perform an act of so-called PDA. “They’re sleeping.”

“Sleeping in your lap? How demure,” he mocked.

“They couldn’t even make it to the bed.”

“So you let them use your lap instead? What a good boyfriend.” As soon as he said that, his face twisted in discomfort and he grabbed at his stomach. “They kneed me in the gut. I thought they were asleep.”

“Some things transcend consciousness it seems.” Simeon laughed just behind his hand. “But you do realize we’re both trapped here now.”

“I can teleport away.” The benefits of magic and being able to fling it around without a care.

As if on cue, Naomi’s hand reached out and grabbed onto his cape, pulling it over their waist like a blanket and nuzzling against both of them.

“....” Solomon went silent as he looked down at them and flicked his hand with a silent sigh. There was crashing and banging in the kitchen before two plates of food came flying out. Thank goodness Naomi always set the food in the same place or else it would be mildly inconvenient to do this blindly.

Simeon gave him a knowing smirk.

Solomon didn’t say a thing as he picked up a sausage link and bit into it.

“You know, it’s acceptable to be kind to our partner without acting like you’re being forced to.”

“But I am being forced,” Solomon said. “Imagine what they’ll do to me once they wake up if they find we didn’t eat anything. My stomach already hurts enough for the day.”

“Of course. I understand.” It was almost too amusing to watch the two of them live in denial. He supposed it didn’t matter as long as it made them happy.

For now though, it was time to let Naomi rest in peace. And to ignore the stomping coming down the hall as their other girlfriend seemed to be rushing downstairs so she could go to work. Maybe Naomi would finally be awake by the time she came home and they could go out. Maybe.

[sleepy-achilles]

Ooo I have this hbtaker idea that’s been stuck in my head. I neeeed to see Shawn protective of taker. Like maybe someone’s talking shit and he catches them? It’s just always taker taking care of Shawn I think I’d be a cool dynamic switch

I'm working on other asks until I can wrap my head around the story I want to tell with the fnaf one. It seems pointless keeping these in my inbox if I know I can answer them.

Also I did do one of these already, I did a double ask, one of taker being protective and one of Shawn being protective. But it was set in the wwf era so I guess I can do a older one.

I also haven't written solely hbtaker in so long. I miss my boys.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Taker paced back and forth in his lockeroom. His mind racing. His baby brother was back and causing problems. Serious problems.

Outing him? Sure, whatever, but shawn? Shawn! Just as he retires without the world truly finding out those rumours were true.

That's when he hears the crash and yelping.

Taker stops and looks towards the door as footsteps rush past it. "What the-" he cuts himself off, turning on his lockeroom leader head as he moves to the door. He quickly follows the crowd down the hall and manages to push his way to the front.

He pauses at the sight.

"You know, I really liked you a lot betta when you didn't have a voice." Shawn growls. Kane stares at him shocked. "I mean, who taught you to talk so much shit? Oh right. Your daddy, father like son I guess!" Shawn laughs, adjusting his grip on the sledge hammer. Taker glances at Hunter who seems confused but relieved about something. Right, taker remembers now, hunter told him his sledgehammer, hammie, had gone missing.

Well, they've found it. Pressed nice and snug against kanes throat as he's slouched on the floor against a wall.

Shawns jaw tightens and his gaze hardens. "You run your mouth again boy, I'm going to make sure you never speak again" Shawn growls lowly. "Infact, if I even hear takers name leave your lips again, I'll break your neck." Shawn adds. "Say whatever you want about me, go ahead, but taker? No chance. You got a problem? Take it to vince or speak to him privately, you do not air it on TV." Shawn informs him. "Do you understand?" He asks. Nothing.

Shawn leans more on the hammer causing kane to panic. "Understood?!" Shawn pushes. "Understood!" Kane chokes out. "Good. I'm glad" Shawn smiles pulling back. He throws the hammer towards hunter before turning to taker. "Oh, hey Taker! I wanted to take you for food after your match" Shawn smiles walking up to him. Taker stares at him in shock.

Of course, he knows Shawn isn't one to be fucked with. He's seen how protective Shawn can be, over the others. Never him.

Taker just smiles slightly and kisses him. "Thank you" Taker whispers. "Nothing at all. It's my job as your husband after all" Shawn shrugs grabbing his hand and pulling him away. He causes their hands to swing as he bascislly skips as if he didn't just nearly kill a man.

Taker chuckles fondly and squeezes shawns hand.

He has a feeling no one will be on his back for awhile.

Well, atleast until Shawn goes home.

[humanmorph]

C/W 06-09 thoughts : ]

Boy this took me a bit!!! I made the post for the first set of episodes on August 12. I said then I should take more notes while listening, & I think I in fact took LESS notes. edit: and wrote... more??? ok.whatever

Summary (short)

There's a food crisis. Orth gets kidnapped! The Chime gets an automated message to find him and they track him down to some train tracks where the train Orth was on (with a food delivery) got derailed. They get in a really long fight some people from a group called the Iron Choir (they have Orth!) and also some Apostolosians (only really due to bad phrasing on AuDy's part) . And then don't really win but do get away with Orth, so everything's fine I guess?

(more on faction game down below. too much happens in those to summarize here.)

Ground Game

This is the second (and last!) arc they play using MechNoir. I only just started the episode where they switch the characters over to The Sprawl, and I'm counting that towards the next bunch of episodes rather than this one... Anyways, this arc is like a good argument for that switch. It kind of stands out as a "oh they switch after this, right?" thing now. BUT!

The fight was honestly not as much of a slog as I remembered. Like they've done wayyy better fights since ofc especially with mechs (for me personally PZN is still the standout but PAL has had some Good Shit too) but this is like. It's ok! There's fun bits! I like Aria's mech! Part of it might absolutely be that I like. Give a fuck about mechs now and as a result am able to also imagine them better. I think in 2021, when I first listened, I was like. I guess there's Big Robots. Like transformers? (isn't even familiar with transformers) (really doesn't have a touchpoint for this at all)

I liked the snooping around bit before they got to this 2 episode long fight. I already mentioned it in an earlier post briefly, but we learn some minor details about Orth (they are looking through his office), that now really delight me because I love Orth! But when I first listened I don't think I cared very much at all about him at this point. This time around, his and AuDy's relationship intrigues me expecially with how Jack has been playing them.

Player character update...: AuDy is still my favourite. I still don't quite know what to do with Cass, but maybe I'll get there soon? Mako's funny. Though, and I thought I posted about this? But I can't find it now, an arc this episode also brings the morality of fogging robots onscreen for a bit. AuDy's upset by it. I think the notion of the robot he fogs getting more sentient is interesting...? Expecially if you draw a connection to what gives Mako the ability to do it in the first place. ... I won't say more here because I'm not actually sure but it's definitly running via Rightenousness a little bit, right? No clue if those facts are actually connected or not though. Uhm. I like Aria : ). Not many notes there so far, pretty much just the same stuff I said last time (I'm paying more attention to her where I feel like I hadn't as much on my first listen due to Ali being a little more reserved as a player this early on).

Further up I already talked about the switch to The Sprawl & I know the reasons and agree. however. I do think it's fun when they come up with adjectives, even if it messed with the pacing a bit because it took some time to do well. There's still a bit of this with other games they play later, too, like naming risks in Armor Astir or... whatever it was called to take something in Scum & Villainy (I recently relistened to the bit where Gig gets crushed and blown up and is VERY upset by it. It's still very funny).

Another thing I'm noticing more is that I'm occasionally a bit wonky on the factions, even super major ones ( OriCon vs. the Diaspora). I think it's because I didn't listen to the worldbuilding ep... I remember it having pretty rough audio (though probably not worse than that epispde of AiH where you couldn't hear Art at all), and also I skipped it back when I first listened, too (I'd bounced off before. I feel like I've mentioned this). It made some stuff in these episodes a bit hard to keep track of, expecially talking about the food crisis, and who is affected, and who is blamed, etc. (& I very much enjoyed all that! Like oh! We're getting into it now! Space factions and their politics and their effect on the world our characters move in! This rules. Friends at the Table rules)

Faction Game

Sylvi is so ON it with the faction game it's crazy. The other day while listening I remembered this was her first season on the show, like... damn!!! Just a ton of great ideas. It's really fun seeing them all be so enthusiastic about this.

Really good and fun faction game. I'm enjoying these a ton. A lot of my favourite scenes (or very memorable ones) from my first listen is faction game stuff, so I knew I'd like it, but I'm like REALLY really enjoying it. I've already said this in my other post, but I'm pretty sure it's due to the fact I can pay attention better & parse information.

It's a real big one too with a ton stuff getting set up. RIGOUR, Ibex, the Hands of Grace (hi Vicuna), some first September Institute stuff (like how fogging works!), and Loyalty gets introduced in that episode (hi Kobus, also). A lot of Divines, really! I'll get to this very big and important thing first: Rigour getting dug up!!! I totally didn't remember Austin immediately namedrops it at the end of the episode, lol. That probably wouldn't happen now, but these early seasons are more. informal? just less produced? And I really don't dislike it, it's simply a different vibe. And I'm liking it. (The rough-ish audio is also part of it IMO. Love to hear the static white noise if a mediocre mic under their voices.) I do still really like that scene though. Very effective. The image of a worker getting out of his mech to dig the last bit with his hands... It's good shit. Also just. RIGOUR. It maybe even hits more this second time around, because I know just What has been uncovered here and the consequences it will have.

Another is Ibex getting introduced! Hi!!!! : ) Apparently he's something called a "seductress" (or well. seductor) in the games rules, which I extremely forgot and made me laugh when I heard it. And then they proceed to come up with pretty much his whole deal, which Austin's performance is gonna finetune & shape more later on. I'm just excited! I like this guy! (Something I'm trying to do more this time around is take notes to look stuff up later, like what animals the Candidates are named after. I didn't do this for Ibex until sometime last year! Cool animal.)

This faction game also has the first appearance of Diego Rose who I have in mind as sort of Sylvi's special little guy? He's a pretty important guy in the faction that she plays, so I'm just gonna assume he'll show up way more in the future. But really I just loved that scene of him offering a prisoner they took after he shot their ships down to join the Odama Fleet while also threatening him. And he's soooo cunty about it it's so funny to me. Great job.

Tacking this on the end here: I had to look up the summary on the fatt.wiki because it's really been a while since I started this ep vs. finishing it, and this is like the first scene they play through. (The new season got in the way...!) But yeah this episode also has Grace's first real major appearance (& her Candidates, Vicuna). And it's a great scene! I think it's the first Divine onscreen? And showing one's influence on people ("People in the crowd, some of them begin crying and wailing. It is a religious experience for many."). It's good shit!!! I love Divines!!! They've never stopped being cool as fuck as a concept and there really wasn't a point when they weren't. It's just SO good and it'll only ever get pushed further and in even more interesting directions. And it's nice to be back here, at the start.

????

This is neither here nor there. Not anywhere really. But at some point Jack says "no that's undertale" (I didn't note down what about.) %& it really threw me for some reason like ik the years match up. But I just have C/W in mind as like... ages ago... (it was) and Undertale. Is Undertale. /I/ played Undertale! And that wasn't ages ago (lie) (it was)! Like I was probably playing Undertale when they made this season! Strange to think about.

Grace's arrival(?)

I want to try and draw a little image for each of these sets (though this one took me a bit longer than I would've liked). Here's Grace('s feet, because she's so big) and the sculpture park on Gemm

I'm not actually sure why (I don't think it gets mentioned in the episode???) but I've always imagined that planet (Gemm) as like, really foggy. Maybe because fog + ruined statue park looks really cool? + Graces light through the fog? Yeah, I don't know. The park is also empty here, when of course there's a whole parade and stuff in the episode, but this is just an image (an approximation of it.) I have in my head...

[spectrumlife99]

Oh boy...tomorrow's Thanksgiving...that means I have to deal with being surrounded by foods I can't stand. I can't even BE AROUND holiday food, never mind eat it! The smells and looks of holiday food is just too overwhelming for me and I can't be in the same room with everyone while they're eating it. Luckily I don't have to sit at the table with everyone since my family knows about my issues with holiday food. I can count the number of foods I will eat on my fingers, and while it drives everyone crazy, I can't help it. I have issues with the way food looks, smells, tastes, and also texture. My family made sure I have something I'll actually eat tomorrow since I don't eat holiday food, so I'm relieved that I'll be having one of my safe foods for supper tomorrow. So I'll just be watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV tomorrow waiting for the Pikachu and Eevee balloon (my favorite balloon, of course), steering clear of the kitchen as much as I can, and then eating a different, safe meal for supper separately from everyone else...at least we don't have anyone coming over or anything. That would be way too much for EVERYONE, not just me.

To any other autistic people who have food sensitivities, just know you're not alone. I see you and feel you, I'm the same way. It's hard not being able to eat many different foods because of sensory issues, and it's even more of a struggle being yelled at or scolded for it, even though it's not something you can just change. It's not like I can just flip a switch and all my problems with food are gone, no, I've had these issues since I was a kid, and they've only gotten worse over time. I'm to the point where I'm going entire days without eating anything, and I usually only eat one meal a day when I do eat. This stuff is usually really hard for me to talk about but I feel like it's kinda important, and since tomorrow's Thanksgiving, I figured now's as good a time as any to post about it.

So yeah, thanks for reading this kinda long post about how much I hate food, I guess...😅

And everyone in the US, have a happy Thanksgiving tomorrow!

[fbwzoo]

Kitty update!

Shilo & Phoebe are both doing good. They've both lost a little weight as needed with their switch to wet food - Shilo more than Phoebe. She likes the wet food more than he does. He's still at a good weight right now, I think, but I don't want him to keep losing. So I got some Nature's Logic kibble to give them in enrichment toys, and to possibly add a bit extra to Shilo's rotation. Expensive, but hopefully won't be a problem since it'll mostly be small amounts for snacks. And annoyingly, they mostly prefer the cheap brands for wet food, so eh, I guess it balances some.

I was home for 1.5 weeks for stay-cation & the animals all thought this was fantastic, so I had a lot of babies snuggling on me whenever I sat down long enough. Shilo added in some biscuits on Addy's back at one point, which was extremely cute. He does love the dogs.

My boy is really growing up and isn't a baby anymore - he's really calmed down & started to become a bit of a lap cat! 🥺 He's calmer with the other animals too, which means he's actually been doing pretty good the few times he's been around Frank by accident or on purpose!!

Frank still lives in the basement, but we did bring him upstairs for a bit a week or so ago. The cats all did really well, no chasing, only a few minor hisses. Shilo followed him, but mostly just to watch without being too obnoxious about it. Frank stayed out a bit longer than he has before, before he got overwhelmed and stayed hiding in the boys' room. Arte took him back downstairs after that. Really proud of all of them for how good they did! We'll have to get back to working on intro work with them. I do think eventually we'll get to having the cats integrated & the basement open for all 3 of them. Just takes time!